{"id":5285,"date":"2014-07-29T20:59:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T20:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=5285"},"modified":"2021-02-11T09:26:20","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T09:26:20","slug":"mulltrennung-how-the-germans-separate-their-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/mulltrennung-how-the-germans-separate-their-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u00fclltrennung – How the Germans Separate Their Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is probably something that is not talked about much – but different in every country.<\/p>\n

In Germany, we separate our waste generally in Restm\u00fcll\u00a0<\/em>(residual waste),\u00a0Bioabfall\u00a0<\/em>(biowaste),\u00a0Gartenabfall\u00a0<\/em>(garden waste),\u00a0A<\/em>ltpapier\u00a0<\/em>(paper waste),\u00a0Altglas\u00a0<\/em>(glass waste),\u00a0and\u00a0Gr\u00fcner Punkt\u00a0<\/em>(Green Dot) waste. The\u00a0Gr\u00fcner Punkt\u00a0<\/em>labels\u00a0the so-called\u00a0Leichtstoffverpackungen (LVP)<\/em> (Lightweight Packaging).\u00a0This\u00a0LVP\u00a0<\/em>is already enough prepared by the producer for recycling that it does not have to be taken back, but can be disposed of. That is many\u00a0kinds of plastic and some aluminum, like most packaging you find in products.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0LVP\u00a0<\/em>is collected in\u00a0the\u00a0Gelbe Sack\u00a0<\/em>(Yellow Bag), or in some cities, the\u00a0Gelbe Tonne\u00a0<\/em>(Yellow Bin). This\u00a0Gelbe Sack\u00a0<\/em>is available for free in supermarkets!<\/p>\n

Altpapier\u00a0<\/em>is gathered\u00a0in the\u00a0Papiertonne\u00a0<\/em>(Paper bin). This includes anything that is paper.<\/p>\n

Restm\u00fcll\u00a0<\/em>includes everything that cannot be categorized in the other types of waste. These are things such as\u00a0Babywindeln\u00a0<\/i>(baby diapers),\u00a0Staub\u00a0<\/em>(dust), or\u00a0Asche\u00a0<\/em>(ash).<\/p>\n

Bioabfall\u00a0<\/em>is organic waste, so anything plant-based or animal-based, that can be broken down and eaten by microorganisms and enzymes. You get the point :).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Different waste bins in Germany – from left to right, biowaste, residual waste, a Yellow Bin, and paper waste. (Image \u201eM\u00fclltonnen diverse\u201c by 3268zauber. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 at Wikimedia Commons.)<\/p><\/div>\n

That includes all waste you can put in your bins. But there is other waste too, of course.<\/p>\n

You can put your\u00a0Altglas\u00a0<\/em>in the Altglascontainer\u00a0<\/i>(glass waste container), which are made available by the municipality. Altglas\u00a0<\/i>is separated in\u00a0Wei\u00dfglas\u00a0<\/em>(white glass)\u00a0and Buntglas\u00a0<\/i>(colored glass).\u00a0Buntglass\u00a0<\/em>can be further divided in\u00a0Braunglas\u00a0<\/em>(brown glass) and\u00a0Gr\u00fcnglas\u00a0<\/em>(green glass). The same counts for the\u00a0Altkleidersammlung\u00a0<\/em>(old clothes collection). You can bag your clothes and just put them in there. Even shoes!<\/p>\n

Furthermore, there is\u00a0Sperrm\u00fcll\u00a0<\/em>(bulky waste). This includes furniture that is too large for the bins or is not suitable for it by its nature.\u00a0Sperrm\u00fcll\u00a0<\/em>can be put on your sidewalk, and will be picked up by a truck. However, before the truck comes, many people come with\u00a0Anh\u00e4nger<\/em>\u00a0(trailers)\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Kleinbusse \u00a0<\/em>(minibuses)\u00a0to pick up what they think is still usable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Braunglas, Gr\u00fcnglas, Wei\u00dfglas, and Altkleidersammlung next to each other. (Image \u201eLaer 4462\u201c by R\u00fcdiger W\u00f6lk. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 at Wikimedia Commons.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Batteries, lamps and other electronic waste can be disposed of in bins made available in some supermarkets and electronics stores.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All of this is strictly managed in the law. Burning your waste is strictly prohibited. Well, of course you can use wood to fire up your\u00a0Kamin\u00a0<\/em>(fireplace), but you may not burn\u00a0plastic, for example. I observed that with great disbelief in the United States.<\/p>\n

How is waste management coordinated in your country or area?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

It is probably something that is not talked about much – but different in every country. In Germany, we separate our waste generally in Restm\u00fcll\u00a0(residual waste),\u00a0Bioabfall\u00a0(biowaste),\u00a0Gartenabfall\u00a0(garden waste),\u00a0Altpapier\u00a0(paper waste),\u00a0Altglas\u00a0(glass waste),\u00a0and\u00a0Gr\u00fcner Punkt\u00a0(Green Dot) waste. The\u00a0Gr\u00fcner Punkt\u00a0labels\u00a0the so-called\u00a0Leichtstoffverpackungen (LVP) (Lightweight Packaging).\u00a0This\u00a0LVP\u00a0is already enough prepared by the producer for recycling that it does not have to be taken back…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":8647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[358405,358408,358409,358407,69494],"class_list":["post-5285","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-abfall","tag-disposal","tag-mulldeponie","tag-ordnung","tag-waste"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5285"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12643,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5285\/revisions\/12643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}