bæsjpose
Norway is by far the cleanest country I´ve ever been too. Sure, the population density is low, but nonetheless, staten (the state-government) enforces strong regler (rules) regarding taking care of the environment. It also helps that the Norwegian people seem to really respect these rules.
I don´t think I´ve seen any hundskit (dog poop) på siden av veien (on the side of the road), in a hage (yard), or i et offentlig sted (a public place). And I have seen many hunder (dogs). At any small matbutikk (grocery store), you can find small black bags called hundeposer (dog bags) or bæsjposer (poop bags) that are small and easy to slip into any lomme (pocket).
I have four nøkkler (keys) for my leilighet (apartment)-one for rommet mitt (my room), one for postboksen min (my mail box), one for my sportsbod (sports stall-literally a small stall in a garage type place that I can lock up for example a bike, skis, etc. Right now I just have my dogs bur-crate in the sportsbod). The last nøkkel is for the søppelkasse (garbage bin) outside. What I didn´t realize until just today is that I am supposed to sort my søppel into different colored poser. When the søppel gets picked up and brought to the waste treatment plant, an optical device sorts the poser. I´m sure other countries use this system or something similar to it and I think it is a great idea. Better yet, you can go to some place called the ´service center´(which I haven´t yet figured out where and what this is) and pick up the poser gratis. Now I just need to learn what kind of søppel goes in which color pose.
The only thing I see on the street as far as søppel is used snusposer (tobacco chew bags), måseskit (sea gull poop), and the occasional package from a late-night pølse (hot dog) or kebab. Otherwise, cleanliness is quickly noticed.
Another thing that just came to mind involves shopping carts. Although they don´t have anything to do with søppel, if you want to use a shopping cart in a store, you have to put in a coin (worth a couple of US dollars) to get the cart loose from the others. You get your mynt (coin) back when you return your cart to it´s proper place. I thought it was very strange at first and then realized that it is a great way for the company to save money on labor because employees don´t have to constantly drive the carts back in order and B) the parking lot and store look much cleaner. Pretty clever, I think.
I appreciate the respect and cleanliness the Norwegian people show for their veier (roads), hager (yards), natur (nature), and butikker (stores).
i have a key for the middle one to dispose of color coordinated sorted søppelposer
Comments:
BM:
I think the cleanliness varies. I live near the university here and often on a Saturday and Sunday morning I find people have tried to clean the streets with broken bottles of vodka, and various shades of effusions. There is quite a bit of graffiti (not just street art), and it’s not unusual to relieve ones bladder in a public place (obviously into bushes, or against the side of a building, but still not very private).
I recycle and sort too, but not many of my neighbours do. Recently, when the refuse collectors were on strike, my building was given instructions to recycle as much as possible, and to separate out dry non-recyclables from wet non-recyclables. Even in this situation, there were still people who did not follow these instructions.
Interestingly, the word søppel isn’t used here in Bergen. Boss is the word for rubbish. Austlendinger take great pleasure in telling people this fact!
Jacek:
Takk for denne post. Du skrive veldig interessante ting om Norge.
Dessverre i Polen, jeg ser ofte hund skit pa offentlige steder, selv pa lekeplass sa jeg misunnelse det renslighet i Norge.
Denne typen handlekurver er ogsa i mitt land, jeg er overrasket over at du har ikke det i USA.
Søppel (eller boss fra Bergen’s personen) sortering finnes ogsa, men dessverre er ikke veldig populært.
Jo Freeman:
Dear Kari, I’m so glad you are posting your trip to Norway. I have a friend who lives in tonsburg, near Oslo, so you are bringing it so alive for me. She recently sent me pics of the streets there and everything looks so clean and pristine. I’m glad your dog made that long trip. I’ll look forward to reading all your blogs.
Jo
Addisalem:
That is right,i agree with that ………..