www.recyclenow.com

Have a look at the facts - like recycling one bottle does this:

• Power a 100 watt light bulb for almost an hour
• Power a computer for 20 minutes
• Power a colour TV for 15 minutes
• Power a washing machine for 10 minutes

It's worth a read and worth encouraging everyone to recycle more. Adverts for this site are running on UK TV - which is how I spotted it. So you should too

Recycling is definitely a good/great idea and I am all for it. I go to the brocki in Zug each week and take all our stuff. The only thing that puts me off is the psychotic man on paper disposal. He is either truly mad or a man who takes pride in his paper bin. No carton allowed which is fair enough but he was bullying a child the other day

We also got one of those psychotic dump men ....! I guess he got that way thru having to re-sort the stuff? He seems to have this eagle-eye that sees right thru carrier bags and he stalks one from bin to bin. When I`ve upended the bags, with only the correct things falling out - why do I get this feeling of utter virtue? ... like I should be given a merit rating or something?

The only two problems I have encountered is in trying to get rid of the grand-kids plastic toys ..... they are unwanted at the dump, and the other is when the paper/cardboard cascades out of the bag into that deep bin - and lo! there is an illegal item! and it`s too late/impossible to retrieve it. The solution for me now is to do a gentle sort of slow waltz around the dump, avoiding the psycho, to save myself possible embarassment.

The dump does have one fatal attraction for me .... it is my supply of english reading books!

That's one of the great things about living here. All the facilities are in place for recycling, to the extent that there's really no excuse for not doing it. Aluminium, glass, paper, cardboard, PET, garden waste etc. etc. A tiny bit of effort to sort them all and sit back with a smile, knowing you've done your bit.

Smoky, I feel your pain. Regarding the plastic toys, won't the brocki take them to resell? It was our source of entertainment before the shipping arrived. If they are too knackered to resell, you should be able to put them in the plastics bin/skip thing. I saw a man put a whole garden table and 2 benches in the one at ours. Maybe yours is different.

HMmmm, maybe? But in my experience I could recycle more with less effort in the states....here it takes a lot of effort and it seems there are endless plastic things that just can't be recycled here....and there aren't a lot of options at the store to look for better packaging options....limited selection.

Then today I heard from someone the following:
-in Switzerland the plastic is not all recycled, the use some of it as fuel in the incinerators
-the paper and cardboard have to be separated to get picked up, but then they get thrown in the same truck

Does anyone know if the first point is true?

Personally, I am stashing my cardboard to take back to the states to recycle it there.....just seems so much easier

I think these facts are great to hear, i asked a flat mate of mine "where do i put this plastic for recycling" and she was like "we dont really have anywhere, besides it all goes in the one dump in the end"
it made me real angry!! SO, thanks for that info, Ill have to enlighten her!

Don't know about the first point, but I've personally witnessed (and noted here on EF) the intermingling of carefully separated cardboard and paper at the point of collection.

You're not really serious about taking cardboard back to the US, are you? The fuel cost to transport it ...

Fuel is already paid for in my sea crate.....for the rest of my stuff.......