Hi,

Sorry if this has been covered, but I searched and couldn't see anything on this.

Are nappy bins with plastic liners (such as tommee tippee) allowed in Swiss rubbish? If not, how is nappy waste handled?

Thanks.

I hope so. We've been throwing dirty diapers in the trash since we've been here and the garbageman has never complained.

You can stick practically anything you want in the rubbish bags which you have to pay "taxes" for.
i think it all gets burned here.
(shes still in London at the mo, guys)

Common sense would however hopefully stop you from putting things like batteries, metal, glass, paper, clothes, polystyrene, bikes, skis.. and a whole lot of other things they have special collection days for, or collection stations for.

disposable nappies go in the bin, including the contents (i hear some like to flush this down the loo first - never done it myself unless it was in the underwear - TMI)

They haven't gone as nutty here, as i hear they've gone in London, with the collection of food scraps being separated and all.

Things haven't changed much here in the rubbish collection states in the past 10 years.......

Nappies seem to be OK. Although we were warned of mysterious "rubbish inspectors" who check your non-recycled bags for incorrect items such as those that should have been recycled. Also food scraps are recycled in Luzern.

they are taking the p*ss!
can you really imagine someone doing this??!

the only time you might get someone checking your rubbish is if you left the bag at the local school because you couldn't be bothered putting it in an official bag - they will be looking for some way to "return to sender" and fine you.

we have been told to stop making "unnecessary" trips to the local recycling station for "little things" (bike wheel, made of metal) and just put it in with the usual rubbish.

Well linking back to the original question, it wouldn't be my preferred job. But who knows? Anyway my only other tip to thistle would be to buy the smaller bags as a large bin bag full of nappies. Even tommy tippied ones) have a very limited shelf life...And was this question related to deciding whether to move from London to Switzerland?

We did, too. There is nowhere else to put them as far as I can understand.

We kept them in a bin on the balcony until our bin day came around. The bag got a bit minging after a few days so best not to have it in the kitchen...

Thanks for your responses.

The context is that we are moving from London to Zurich at the end of this month. After extensive trawling of the EF, we see some things are more expensive and we might as well stock up and get them transported with us (nappies, baby items, paracetemol etc.)

(Also aware that some cheaper brands are available in CH too, but we'll get to that when we've arrived)

...so my husband was about to buy a stash of nappy liners when I remembered reading all kinds of stuff about strict recycling, the aforementioned rubbish inspectors etc. and suddenly thought that maybe there are rules about disposing of nappy waste (given it is particularly noxious) as well...

Seems not, though.

Thanks!

Hey there,

we are using ordinary kitchen sandwich bags and a little bin that seals well (available from kids'r'us) for bundling up our little mans' output. not sure how old your child is, but for the little ones (pre-solids) this is a practical and cheap option. buying into one of those branded "disposal-systems" can be an expensive, and from what i read, an ineffectual way of dealing with the problem.

on the topic of other things to bring.....

when we were last in the UK we picked up bunch of plain babygrows ("onesies") and vests from Tesco's. They came in packs of 2-3 for a couple of pounds. here you can expect to pay 10-20 CHF for individual items (and that is at the lower end of the scale). Also, last week we were looking for sleeping bags in preparation for the colder weather. they were priced between 80 and 200 CHF. not sure what the prices are in the UK, but I am sure they will be cheaper than this.

(in fact, i'm sure "everything" will be cheaper!)


good luck with your move

It is true. My friend got fined when her mother put wine bottles into the normal rubbish bags. I have also seen them in action going through bags that were left out when it was not rubbish collection day. I really hope they get paid well .

I wouldn't go too mad on stocking up on nappies. The supermarkets have normally got good offers on at least once a month. My son is out of nappies apart from using them at night and yesterday we bought (on offer) a "Mega" box of 108 size 4+ Pampers for CHF 39. I just saw that you can get the same box containing 102 Pampers in Tesco for 16 quid so it's about the same.

My husband and I have always managed to buy nappies when they have been on offer and have never paid full price (and we're not exactly canny shoppers... )