Recycling in Portugal

I was pleasantly surprised to find recycle bins on the beach in Portugal.
Yellow = plastic
Brown = brown glass
Green = green glass
Blue = normal trash
(There were other blue bins located elsewhere along the beach too.)


In the residential and hotel area there were more bins for paper, plastic, glass and trash along the streets at various intervals. Here new friend Ian is trying to follow the picture diagram which identifies what can be put into the Yellow bin.

Recycling in Portugal almost resembles the German standards, which was a little surprising to me.

Recycling in the UK

One thing I really liked about life in Germany was the prevalence of environmentally friendly options which were readily incorporated into daily German life. I had very little garbage there because much of it was placed in the various paper and yard waste containers and yellow sack. So at the end of the day I had less than a small shopping bag of 'true' garbage per month. Glass would be deposited in the pods less than a block from my flat.

Here in the UK I've already noticed more packaging and more plastic. I've researched from the local council's site the recycling options and overall, I find the system to be unconnected at best, disjointed at worst.

To start, I live in a flat building. Recycling is not available to my flat building the way it is to local houses. Boooo Essex! So we have two large dumpsters for 12 flats in the basement of the building which are absolutely full every two weeks. In Germany we had four garbage bins (smaller than those giant wheelie ones in the US or UK) which were emptied twice per month and never packed.

So if I want to recycle, how can I do it?
Here are the giant recycle pods down the street behind 'my' bar, located in a pay parking lot. On the plus side, ther are no quiet hours on them like in Germany so I can bring my glass at any hour it appears.

On the negative side, I can only bring the following four items to these four pods:

1. brown glass

2. green glass

3. clear glass

4. 'food and drink cans' - this category is only for tin or aluminum, not plastic.

So where does my plastic go?

5. I need to haul that with me to the big supermarkets such as Asda or Tesco, they have giant pods too. Or I need to drop it with a friend who has a bin which will accept those.

Where does my paper go?

6. Paper can go to the Tesco box.

What about cardboard?

7. Cardboard is harder to find a home for. There is a box for it in the hidden long term parking lot.

8. The same parking lot has a bin for shoe donations as well.

So why not take everything to Asda or Tesco in the car?

A. I try to avoid the supermarkets in person and don't go so often. Plus--I'm not in the car every day, I'm trying to go to and from the office on foot.

B. Tesco and Asda have a variety of bins depending on which one you go to. This one takes aresol cans, that one doesn't. This one takes plastic and squashes it in an instant machine, that one has pods which are always full and on and on...

Overall--not so impressed yet on this point for my corner of Essex.

busy - decluttering in Germany

To change your life, change your perspective. To change your perspective, change your environment. I'm bringing my 'garden philosophy' inside and applying it to inside things. (Heather's garden balcony mantra: If you aren't producing anything of value, space is limited, and you are dismissed). Unproductive plants, unproductive books, it's all the same in the end.

Some things I've been up to recently:

1. books - a review of the entire bookshelf. Do I want to read this again? Would I pay 50 cents to ship it elsewhere, plus having to box it up with other and schlep it to the post office? I've received some hand-me-down books from expats leaving Germany as they know I like to read, but some of them are absolutely not in my interest area. I'd been saving them for a rainy, bookless day, but ever since I've discovered bookswapper, I'd had more than enough to read and then some. However, I'm sure someone will enjoy some of them much more than me.

Therefore--gone, ye books which are gathing dust--www.bookswapper.de, and I'm a happier soul that some other English reader in Germany is getting some enjoyment from you.

2. gifts/clothes/things - often I've received something, but it's not in my interests. Or I've brought things from the US years ago, and it's not something I need now. In the US I'd drop it with nearby family (my aunts/cousins wear the same shoe/clothing size), and if no one was interested it would go to goodwill. Here, I've been following a different route:

A. recycle - by giving to work colleagues - some things can be used by my office mates.

B. ebay - I'm working on my German skills by selling things on ebay.de.

For example, I had purchased a pair of Dr Martins shoes from a goodwill back in the US, in the last five minutes before they closed. It was a rush affair, and I never had such a pair of shoes previously, but they were only 1.50 USD and new, and I knew of people here who swore by them. After wearing only a handful of times, I came to the conclusion that I don't like such heavy shoes. Onto ebay they went, and 17.50 euros later, I'm a happier person, as is some Goth gal near Berlin who got a great pair of shoes, practically new.

C. freecycle - just like the US equivalent, freecycle is here also in the major cities like Cologne. As I work pretty close to a Deutsche Bahn station, I just make arrangements to meet the person there after work.

D. Humana - Germany makes it very convenient to donate clothes/shoes, with large drop boxes belonging to various charities/groups in convenient places where you drop bagged items into the box, and a truck comes through periodically to empty the boxes. My closest donation box (seven minutes away on foot) belongs to Humana.

E. big trash pickup day - if all else fails, I can always just put something at the curb the night before big trash pickup day, once I figure out when our next one is scheduled. As we know, everything still in working order will find a new owner easily and quickly here in DE. :-)

Sperrmüll it is!

Mausi is one smart cookie to figure that out the answer to this little quiz. Or maybe she just had a leg up on the topic since Mr. M is a flea market fan. A small prize is due to the lady, perhaps at the next Whiney Expat meetup.

(The answer would be 'trash-picking' for English readers. ;-))

I've tried to point out to D, it's not so bad, even the Wall Street Journal talks about this trend in Germany.

I happen to enjoy the selection in Wuppertal. I came out of Polish class just after 9 PM and it was 8 degrees and dark out. However, the streets were crawling like it was a warm summer day. People were hauling things out of the cellars and apartments, and people were going up and down the streets seeking the best prize from the curb offerings. Some had flashlights, some pull along carts, and some drove up in cars for precious big items.

I had some things to do and I don't plan to stay in Germany forever, so I really didn't need to acquire anything, except noticing the plant holders while walking past, I thought they'd be useful for my herbs, so I joined the mix sifting through the garganuan curbside mountains. If you're in the need of furniture, dishes, appliances, clothing, toys, absolutely anything in the world, find a good neighborhood in Germany and keep an eye open for the bulk trash day when everyone puts out anything and everything.

And more about the planters? I spent the week learning about the intricacies of West German pottery to figure out what I picked up. Seems my herbs will be in finer digs than I'd ever buy for them.

The spirit of Christmas

H: Look what I found in the recycle bin while throwing out my newspapers. Pretty barely used wrapping paper and ribbon. It was probably for St. Nick's day. Score!

D: Do you really need to be picking out of the trash?

H: It's not the trash, it's the recycle bin. I'm going to wrap my Nana's gift in it. She'll love it.

D: How much do you love your Nana, to give her trash-picked ribbon?

H: Nana grew up during the depression and taught me everything I know about trash-picking. She'll be so proud. Besides, being green is in this year.

D: (Sigh)

absolutely exhausted and bottle recycling

in an effort to avoid usual 'packing like a bat outta hell the night before i fly back to the US' experience, i've spent today running around getting things in order, well in advance of flying on thursday of next week. the bulk of the xmas gifts were actually purchased in lithuania this year in oct, so it was only some supplemental 'typical' german things that had to be purchased today, such as beer and chocolate.

today was also 'bottle return' day for me. here in deutschland, when you purchase soda, beer, or bottled fizzy water, you usually pay a deposit on that bottle, be it glass or plastic or sometimes aluminum. it encourages recycling since you just paid anywhere from 8 to 25 euro cents on the bottle/can. further, it's relatively convenient, because any place that sells you a bottle with a deposit or 'pfand' must also accept back that bottle and then return your deposit.

however, there are 'networks' of recycling, so one must pay attention. sometimes you'll buy something (like a can of red bull or a bottle of pepsi) from a petrol station and another from the supermarket. both come from germany and look the same and you were charged the same pfand (25 cents) on each, although the price for the item itself could be slightly different. there could be different markings on the back of the bottle signifying to which network it belongs and words telling you to return it for your pfand. however, if you try to return the supermarket's bottle back to the petrol station, they do not need to take it back, since they can tell that you did not purchase it there, since it often has a different symbol on the back. Thus you're forced to hold on to it, and to remember that it needs to go back to the supermarket instead.

fortunately, there is often a sign next to where you return bottles that clearly identifies which symbols on the back of the bottles that they will accept, and often that water than you bought two towns away is actually part of the same supermarket network, so even through they do not sell that type of water, they will accept back that water bottle from you as it has one of their 'accepted' network symbols.

This whole complicated system could explain why many Germans seem to have a routine of buying the same one crate of beer and the same one crate of water each Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. (A crate varies in quantity depending on bottle size, but is usually standard among a certain type of beverage, i.e. water.) Then, the next time that they go back, they bring back the crates with the empty bottles completing the one in/one out loop each week. Usually you buy your beverages at the supermarket here, but they will be in a separate entrance connected to the supermarket, so you go in the 'beverage only' part separately. Or you could go to a 'drink market' which is the closest thing to a Pennsylvania beer distributor that I've ever seen.

Since I buy for one, I tend not to buy a whole crate of anything, or I'll need to step over a crate of water, another crate of beer, etc. in my kitchen of limited storage space. Therefore, I buy only a few bottles at a time in the supermarket proper. The advantage of buying beverages in the supermarket is that if you are like me and you only buy a few bottles total, then you can just pick them up as you pick up your other food. It saves you from having to go into the separate beverage place. Whether you buy in the supermarket or in the 'connected beverage place' (i'm sure there's an official German word for it), it's the same price. Finally, the soda and water selection is better in the supermarket, and they also sell more of the smaller, single serving of things, like cans of coke. When you need a bigger selection of beer or anything coming in a crate, the connected place is better.

Over time then, I tend to accumulate bottles and cans since I'm not returning them each week. I have a large box in my closet that I put empty bottles into and then every three to six months I go through it and sort them out so that I can take them in groups back to where they belong. Some just go back in the box when I know where they need to go, but it's not a destination today. Here was today's lot:

- 10 Portuguese brown glass beer bottles. No pfand, but to the recycling pods for brown glass.
- 1 Evian water bottle. oops, from France actually as the label contains no German, so no pfand. Into the 'gelb sack' or plastic recycling bag you go.
- 2 Polish beer bottles from a few months ago. From a small market in my tiny town. 13 cents each.
- 1 single can of Coke. No idea where it came from but it's in German. Back into the box.
- 1 small water bottle from a train station I occasionally go through when I switch trains going toward Duesseldorf. back into the box.
- 1 large (1 liter) glass water bottle from a Turkish pizza place one town over, back in the box.
- 3 large glass water bottles from the Kaufmarkt. 15 cents each, I think.
- 6 cans of Red Bull. They're a big hit at 25 cents each. I take along one to try at the automatic bottle return machine inside the supermarket.
- 2 plastic water bottles from the PennyMarkt. Into another bag to be taken back to the PMarkt.
- 1 plastic Pepsi bottle from the PMarkt, into that bag.
- 1 .3 Liter Sprite bottle that is of questionable origin. However, it has the pfand word on it, so it goes into in a 'questionable' bag to try at the Kaufmarkt.
- 2 glass beer bottles from Kaufmarkt.
- 6 glass beer bottles from a Belgian supermarket. They clock in at 15 cents each, so I take them down to my cellar storage area to be out of the way until I next make a Belgian trip.
- 2 plastic .5 Aquafina water bottles. Those are easy ones to return since they are sold in many places.
And on and on....

So as I was doing my final shopping/running around I was returning bottles along the way. There are two new machines at the PMarkt for bottle returns. You insert the plastic bottle into the mouth of one of the machines, it spins it inside to read the bar code and maybe weigh it, and then the mouth closes and it squashes the bottle and then the mouth opens again for another. It keeps a running tally on a little LCD screen next to the mouth, of bottles returned and the amount to be returned. Once you are out of bottles, there is a green button to press and it gives you a receipt to take to the cash register in order to get your money.

So all told, I think I made just under 4 euros total on my bottle returns today. Overall, I'm not sure it's really worth the monetary effort which is why if you are going to a picnic or on a train, people will often leave their 8 cent glass beer bottles behind as they can be heavy to carry around and there are regular 'bottle pickers' who will pick them up from where ever you leave them in a public place. If you are holding an empty, they'll even offer to take it for you and often to put it in their sack in an elaborate setup of bags rigged to a bicycle that shows that they spend 8 hours of a Sunday finding bottles for return.

However, it's one more thing sorted before going back to the US. And no, for those people in the US who are getting a bottle of German beer as a gift from me, I will not bring those bottles back for the pfand. ;-)