http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_ne...l?cid=30161424

Seems a very high number, but not entirely surprising considering how clean everywhere normally appears... I wonder if some of the cost can be claimed back from 20min/smokers etc ?

Pat

It already is...via taxes on cigarettes and other Canton taxes. Also, sweeping a road without butts costs the same as sweeping a road with butts. Just because butts makes up a large fraction of the total waste does not mean it costs any extra.

It seems believable, the annual public cleaning budget for just the city of Berne, not the Canton,
is CHF 120 million with 340 employees (Roads, footpaths, sewers, football grounds etc)

From the Berne city administration website,
www.bern.ch/stadtverwaltung/tvs/tba/tab_broschuere.pd

I believe it...I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm appalled at the amount of lunch time trash that is left behind outside.

Just this last Saturday, as I was exiting the parking area by the Migros here in our town, a young (around mid twenties) couple drove by and the lady passenger threw a plastic bag out of her window. I was so shocked and disgusted. There are blocks of apartments right there and she just littered right in front of them (of course even if they weren't there it would be just as bad but it just sucks that it's a residential area too). I wanted to drive my car into them I was so angry!

In the scheme of things -- peanuts. That works out to less than 7 rappen per person, per day. Given the brain surgeon-style salaries that street-sweepers undoubtedly earn here*, that's a bargain.

If anyone thinks the quoted figure is high, it speaks more about exorbitant pay rates and the Swiss obsession with pristine cleanliness than about a littering mentality in CH.

*cf street-sweepers in Zürich with brain surgeons in Mogadishu

That is crazy! I think people get spoiled because they know that *poof* it will be gone by morning. They should go to Naples for a while, then they'll think twice!

Fixed that for you.

Zubie when is the last time you were in Paris, London, Glasgow?
We live in areas that are high standard compared with some place despite the odd litterbug!
I was in Paris a fortnight ago and was appaled by the fag butts, litter, chewing gum and dog shit everywhere.

I was only trying to make brain surgeons in Copenhagen feel good about themselves.

No posts in x2 weeks then this, trolling trolling trolling..

Yet another bash the smoker thread.

I found it amusing the first time I saw the fine soap trail behind one of the sweepers---Shocked, I asked my swiss friend: They clean the streets with soap EVERY night????

he answered: "Well how ELSE would you clean the streets?!!" Like I was the insane idiot

and your problem is.....?

When I read the swissinfo article, I didn't see it as a "bash the smoker" topic, just the costs involved just, to me, seemed high and therefore open to discussion - sorry if you took it any other way. That is not why I posted the link...

Also, Thanks for keeping tabs on my posting history. Not sure why it is relevant. Sorry If we are expected to post more often....

Pat

You're welcome, I miss your positive contributions to the forum (seriously)

I dunno most people would have a lot to say in 2 weeks. Theres's been quite a few IT threads I know you'd have plenty of positive comments to make. I guess this rubbish issue must have been top of your priorities.

Rubbish costs a lot to clear up you only have to look at Naples to understand the costs involved and the money that can be made. Rubbish in general is a big problem worldwide. Someone must pay it's that simple. I don't understand why this is worthy of news if I'm honest.

"I wonder if some of the cost can be claimed back from 20min/smokers etc"

Ahh now I see the point....I like the first bit, it sort of distracts from the second eh. Prey tell who's the etc?

Ahh but arguing the other point. If the butts weren't there then the streets would need less sweeping no?

it's quite the phenomenon I don't quite understand here.

I am very impressed on the effort people go to here to deal with their household waste: Buying specific bags, buying stickers, sorting the recyclables, hording recyclabled untill specific days, trips to recycle stations once/twice a week, lockingpublic rubbish bins with size specific openings.

but with cigarette butts, the ground is apparently the acceptable place.

Back home people treat a toss cigarette butt like a tossed mcdonalds cup--ignorant littereing, with fines attached.

But if those other limits and rules were applied, you'd definitely have revolt and people just dumping their household unsorted waste on the edge of some farmer's field.

If the Swiss can become so diciplined with their household waste, there's no reason they can't be the same with using public ashtrays (which there are already a lot of !)

What I never understood is why some bright spark has not made the use of biodegradable cigarette butts law?

As one of the seemingly few smokers who dispose of butts in the litter bins, after carefully stubbing them out, I too find it annoying that there are no fines for littering. Cigarette ends are just as bad, if not worse, than most other types of litter - I've seen birds pecking at them, for example.

Equally so, however, I find it annoying that recycling is not easier here. In Germany, there were four bins outside each house, of varying colours: brown for bio-waste (eggshells, veg trimmings), green for garden waste, blue for plastic/paper and black for everything else. Actually, the "everything else" was comparatively little. They also come and pick up large items for free on a regular basis.

Here, I buy my Zurisacks and do the decent thing. I will not, however, be recycling as it's .. well.. a bit of a fag, to be truthful.

To me what's impossible to understand is why people throw it in the first place... Been running in the forest, and you can see "athletes" blowing their noses and then throwing the "mouchoir" in the decor.

I'm always close to asking what will happen the next morning when they come running through the same place...