A Happy Garbage Day!

Anna Baumgartner, one of our wonderful aupairs, is visiting us from Austria and we are so happy to have her with us again! In addition to her easy going personality, she brings with her garbage expertise. Germany (and Austria) make little landfill and recycle many more things then we can in the US.

We humans have created a big landfill problem but to make little landfill is complicated, as I alluded to in a previous entry. Really garbage can and must go one of 6 places as modeled by garbage-master Peter: paper, bio (compost), glass returnable, glass recycling, the infamous gelbe Sack (yellow bag) for small cartons and wrappings and restmull (landfill). The garbage people pick up paper, bio, restmull and the gelbe bag from houses each on a different day of the month, so clearly explained by the schedule included. Some plastic and glass bottles get returned to the supermarket for refunds and the other glass we drive to the glass recycling bin. It seems that dividing out the garbage in that many different piles is just a small step above just littering your whole floor and maybe house with garbage. But it definitely makes you think about what you buy, as you develop a panic for overloading one of the 6 garbage piles at home

When Peter's mother was here, she made sure all garbage was in its correct resting spot, but without her we've had many discussions and spent much time checking the list of what goes in the gelbe bag (also included for you benefit). Anna helped us figure the many garbage details we had been missing and the garbage people actually took our garbage-yippie! I am amazed that our family produces very little landfill garbage (right end of the 3 compartment bin).

It is strange to dedicate an entry to garbage, but Germany, Austria and Switzerland (and likely other European countries) have highly sophisticated recycling and environmental preservation is clearly a priority.