I have an embarrassing amount of wine bottles on my balcony, only because I can' find my local bottle banks. I can't ask the neighbours because I never see them.

I need to get my recycling done and I don't feel like dumping things in the COOP bins behind my building like everyone else does.

Does anyone know if there is a gemeinde website that contains this kind of information, or if there is a number I can call?

Cheers,

should be yes - mine does

depends on your gemeinde

which Gemeinde is yours ?

I live in Zurich, 8004 - Wiedikon.

Try this:
http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/internet...mmel/8004.html

I seem to remember seeing some a couple of streets over IIRC - cross the busy stinky A3 connector route and one block further I think there is the blue bins.

I'd walk first to see

Thank you all.

If I may add - just to spare you from avoidable trouble:

To save the people living nearby from the noise of crashing glass at night and on Sundays, these containers have "opening hours". I think it is from 7 to 7, and not on Sundays - or something similar. But there are big signs on the containers. So, if you check them out, you should also check when it is allowed to use them. Oh, and there is always a container for metal, too (just in case you have cans, too).

Idgie

Good input Idgie - an Aussie friend of mine was written up by her Gemeinde several years ago for putting bottle in the glass bin on a Sunday. One of the nearby neighbours saw her and dobbed her in, which resulted in a rather nasty letter from the Gemeinde stating she now 'had a record'!!

I have one of these stations located on the corner of our apartment block. Very convenient, but yes some respect is appreciated. I dont care about the Sunday vow of silence (it's weird for me to not hear lawnmowers, powertools, loud motorbikes etc on Sunday), but the night droppers make me want to buy a sniping rifle. I mean the 2am, after the party, 50 bottle droppers. Oh part of the colourful Kreis4 I guess.

My knowledge of German is still rather too dire for me to be able to make sense of the information online as to what happens in my Ort (Zürich-Alstetten) as regards recycling.

I gather that paper is collected by local services. Maybe even cardboard. I also gather the Swiss have set themselves an ambitious target for PET recycling. Metal and glass seem low priority, although it was cool to see that some bottles of beer have a deposit that can be redeemed on return.

But can anyone tell me, or tell me how to find out, the following?

The nearest glass/ paper/ metal recycling point?

The collection times for any local pick up services?

When your registered - you did register didn't you? - this would be at your local community office, they should have given you full recycling details for your area.

In an effective move to stop you having to bother learning German, these instructions are often multi-lingual - including English.

Glass will go in bottle banks, all over the pace and outside most supermarkets, unless you paid a deposit and that you'll get back in the form of a credit (usually) from a machine inside the supermarket.

Welcome to the 'rubbish sack society'...

(You do know about rubbish sacks?)

Alstetten is 8048 is it not?
http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/internet...mmel/8048.html

Don't forget to consult this thread for other recycling
Recycling clothes, shoes and textile/fabric

and do remember there are Sammelstellen for electronic goods (free) and general household rubbish (pay-by-weight) in your area (for Zurich, it's Recyclinghof Hagenholz)
http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/internet...gshandbuch.pdf (in German)

I'll ignore what sounds like sarcasm and simply answer that yes I did register, and quite promptly. And no - I was not provided with any such information. My only interactions with the local bureaucracy so far have involved them taking photocopies of my passport, and later providing me with my residency permit, being charged admin fees, and of course, my first set of letters telling me all about (what I think is) compulsory health insurance (in German).

Perhaps they are multilingual, but not having received any such items I wouldn't know.

Sadly, none of these are in evidence around any of my local supermarkets. Having been a fairly efficient recycler in my previous life in London, I do know what a recycle bin looks like. Realising that ignorance of German is no obstacle to actually walking the streets and finding one, I did make a start and found nothing. The only recycle bins I've seen so far have been during my bus journey to work. Hence my questions.

Yes. They are the usually black things made out of some form of processed, irreplacable fossil fuel that people, who do not care to think about what they are doing, tend to stuff with items that are probably destined for a landfill somewhere, instead of their being disposed of in a manner that allows a large percentage of their contents to be recycled.

Korrect. Jetzt ist alles klar. I have hit that web site before, but I was looking for the key word "recycling", not "Sammelstellen", or "collecting points" as babel.altavista.com translates it.

That is exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks Lob!

Now compare the above two-liner answer to my post with the zero-semantic-content, and to me slightly offensive, communiqué from Ab Fab in the post above.

Ah, in most countries your answer would be spot on, but not here!

You need to buy special bags called "Zuri Sack" (I believe they're white) in order for your garbage to be collected. A plain black bag will not be collected. You can get these bags by asking for them at the grocery store. (ask for "abfallsacke") They'll ask you how big you want, and you tell them. I'm not sure of the sizes in Zurich.

They're also very expensive, to keep people from stuffing things in there that can be recycled for free.

Hi

Have you checked Alstetten Bahnof? our glass, clothing and metal recycling bins are at our local train station and you find them at most train stations, also Pet/plastic bottles need to go to the supermarket, our local Migros has pet recycling machines/bins inside the shop

Hope this helps

Nicky

I do have to say that, when I registered back in "the day", I was given nothing with regards to recycling and Zuri-sack information.

I did find out pretty quickly (100 francs plus MwSt) that not using a Zuri-sack was wrong

Your local supermarket is the place to drop off PET bottles (note separate for milk PET and other PET plus batteries, yoghurt pots etc).

Thalwil at least supplies a slickly named 'Rubbish Calendar' each year showing all collections and what you should do with you rubbish. Send to each home and handed to all new residnets and also available in 18 pages in a rather slow loading .pdf file (www.thalwil.ch/dl.php/de/20040109115749/Abfallkal_Thalwil_2006.pdf in German).

I lived in the town of Zurich when the rubbish sack system was introduced and every home was supplied with multi-lingual instructions. But a quick Google found Zurich's info but only in German:
www.abfall.zh.ch/internet/bd/awel/awb/abfall/de/wissenswertes/abfallarten.html

OK, now I've found a 32 page brochure in pdf format in English about the town of Zurich, the link below should open Acrobat (Adobe pdf view) with Zurich Rubbish Sack searches marked.

www.stadt-zuerich.ch/internet/fif/home/neu_zugezogen/broschuere.ParagraphContainerList.ParagraphContain er0.ParagraphList.0004.File.pdf/Willk_Engl_05.pdf#search=%22zurich%20rubbish%20sac k%22

I've got to say I really like the abfallsacke systen in Zurich. Since i've arrived i've recycled a lot more and even so far as feeling guilty if i put glass or metal into those white bags.