1. It seems that today was the day I should have put out the broken chairs with the orange sticker attached, to be taken away. What should my plan B be, to get rid of the 3 chairs ( apart from waiting till I can use next years stickers .)

2. Is it ture that people in Basel have been fined 100chf for putting their blue rubbish bags out earlier than the night before they are due to be collected? ( eg: people putting them out early before going on holiday)

3.Oh, now I have forgotten what my third Basel issue was! Time for a calming cup of tea upstairs.

The free stickers will only be valid until the end of the year (or whatever your stickers indicate), that's why many people is using them

Not sure about that, but in many rental contracts it's written that the trash can be put outside only 24 hours before they are due to be collected.

1. Take it to your nearest dump

http://www.sens.ch/wDeutsch/karte_sa...anchor=1010022

2. Not sure about getting fined but you will most certainly be warned, ask a neighbour to do it for you

3. Enjoy your cuppa

Let me answer your questions:

1. Kleinsperrgut (I guess two chairs are) can be put outside with the relative stickers the same days of the blue bags. So you have a couple of weeks more before they expire. In alternative in your Abfuhrplan you should have an indication of the nearest station were to bring garbage outside of the collection days.

2 The blue bags shall be put outside starting from 19:00 of the day before the collection. This is the rule. According to 20 min they collected somethng like 600 illegal bags, searched for clues to find out the owner and fined 60 bags in total. I wonder how much the searches costed.

3. Enjoy your cup of tea and don't worry.

Thanks for that info. I am going to leave the chairs outside, with the stickers on, nd cross my fingers that they disappear with the blue bags on Thursday - oh, and hope that I don't get fined between now and then. I only put them out because I noticed that someone else from the building had already put stickered stuff out this evening. Seems I am not the only ignorant person in the apartment block.

Adrian makes a good cup of tea.:-)
Next question: Apparently there is some sort of gift certificate that can be bought and then redeemed at a lot of ( or at least several) Basel shops. Does anyone know what this is called and where it can be bought?

Many thanks.

Ah Ha! I am off to buy exactly those coupons tomorrow. They are called something like BaselStadt einkauf gutschein and are technically meant to be available in all shops that accept them - which are most of the big ones, but last year I had a bit of a run around finding somewhere to buy them. I asked in quite a few shops that accept them but they all had excuses why they didn't just then have any in stock.

In the end I got them in Pfauen and I think it was at the customer service desk by the bank tills (and the disabled/baby change loo) on the 4th floor.

Thanks for that info. Is Pfauen in Freistrasse?

Yes the big coop in Freistrasse. I'm sure Globus would sell them too and Manor. I just remember last year having a bit of a runaround going into lots of shops that had the sticker on the window saying they accepted them only to find they didn't sell them.

By the way at 4am this morning I suddenly remembered their name "Pro Innen Stadt" gutschein.

Where does one acquire these stickers and what are they called and what items can they be used on?

+1

Manor has them at the customer service desk (which was on the top floor before the refurb. Probably still is).

They're called Sperrgutvignette and you can get them from post office, Coop and Migros (I'd guess probably anywhere you can buy bebbisaggs).

Each sticker costs 4.50 and is valid for up to 10 kg.

You can apply a sticker to a "burnable" object up to 10kg that won't fit in a blue bag and leave it for the bin men on the usual collection day.

Objects over 10 kg, or non-burnable objects (crockery, glass, etc. (but not metal)) can have stickers applied (1 sticker per 10kg or part thereof), but you must call for them to be collected.

(Metal goes out on metal day and is collected for free)


Edit : It's all explained (in German) here.

two tickets come with the official pamphlet that lists all the days that things can be put out for collection. I received next years list , last week but have not yet used this years two stickets - that is what I am trying to do now! ( chairs have been sitting outside for 24 hours.... :-(

you could always try posting them in the for free section of the EF, make sure you include a photo as im sure the person who might want them will want to know what kind of repairs need to be done.
never know might get lucky.

i like the collect em when ever you want as they are outside now part

Nice, white, wooden dining chairs with wicker bases - and the wicker is the problem. On all three chairs, the wicker gave way within days of each one. I imagine the cost of having the wicker replaced in Basel, will be more than the chairs are worth. They could be given a wooden base instead, but I don't have the tools for doing that. They look very sad and sorry for themeleves at the moment , huddled togetheroutside in the rain.

maybe try posting their details here.

http://www.englishforum.ch/free-stuff/

if its just the seat part that is broken, it should be simple enough to nail a new wooden seat part onto the frame put a cheap chair cushion on top and problem solved, at this stage i would be more worried about water damage.

also where did you buy these chairs? did they not have some kind of warrentee?

This made me chuckle until I realised you were talking about the chairs, not the stickers.

Alternatively, go for another picnic at Schutzmnmatt, taking your own seating 'cos you're environmentally friendly (or something).

Then "forget" to take them back home with you.

Mirfield! :-O

Haha! Thats a very funny suggestion!