We have separate days for paper and carton recycling. For convenience, can we mix paper with carton with recycling.
I saw from the post that this is allowed: https://batmaid.ch/blog/en/guide-to-...in-switzerland. But if so, why do we have separate days for paper and carton recycling?

No you cannot. One day is paper and the other carton. Cannot be mixed, cannot use paper bags to put out carton.

No, except if the paper has been through a shredder and is in a paper bag or box. Then it can go with the cardboard collection...

Guess it depends on your area. We have big containers that we chuck it all in, and paper and cardboard goes in together. But that's a total different system to what you describe.

Here containers for paper and cardboard are very much separate.

One shall not mix cardboard with paper for recycling.

In ZH the paper is recycled separately from the cardboard.
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/...en/papier.html
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/...en/karton.html

These materials are normally processed in different streams, so mixing them creates extra problems for a sorting center or even leads to burning them instead of secondary use as a material.

Some of recycling practices in CH are not transparent enough, so it is sometimes hard to tell, if your sorted garbage goes into a proper recycling or into a burner, but it is still required to separate what has to be separated. ZH authorities claim, that 80% of paper is recycled and almost all cardboard too, so looks like it is at least worth trying on our side.

Our recycling centres want paper bags in the 'carton' bins

So the answer is “It depends on the Canton and the recycling place. You better ask.”

At ours they want paper and cardboard separated. They do not want shredded paper. (it blows around and makes a mess)

Yes.

At ours, all is combined.

Tom

That's the first time I hear that.
And if kri and you mean these Migros-, Coop-type paper bags, it was always said they are explicitly not allowed in the collection. (Which is a pita as they would be really practical).
So this has changed?

It is actually very annoying, they keep changing their demands.
First all carton had to be flat and tied together. Then they said you can stuff it all in a carton box but it MUST be open on top (probably so they could make sure it was carton) - that was a wonderful, easy time and I stuffed those boxes so full that nothing inside moved an inch when the box was lifted) and the other week they suddenly came up with the demand that this box system is still okay, still must be open but needs a string around it!
That's a waste of string - as we talk about environmental activity here - it won't work at all should it be because some people pack those boxes loosely and stuff falls out when being collected.

/rant

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It’s strange here because if you take the paper and cardboard to the large recycling centre the paper and cardboard bins are totally separate but if you go to one of the unmanned recycling points they go in the same container.


There is the monthly paper collection carried out by the school kids and that is strictly paper only.

Theory and practice differ.

In theory and more often than not, you should not mix much paper and cardboard. You can mix a bit of paper with cardboard if it is going to be used for cardboard manufacturing (which is why it also differs from gemeinde to gemeinde). Paper fibers are shorter than cardboard fibers. Therefore, to guarantee a proper cardboard hardness, they only use a certain % of recicled material in each new cardboard batch. Some shorter fiber strands are tolerated.

There's a lot of sorting going on, also for paper and cardboard. So some mixing will be tackled when sorting, before the material goes for pulping and de-inking.

Important thing I always tell my kids: cardboard (actually most materials) MUST be clean when you want to recycle it/them. That means: no pizza boxes. Oil will stick to the fibers and ruins the end product.

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Well I am just glad carton is now collected every 2 weeks - I had run out of space to store it with all the online shopping

Paper bags - they can be thrown with the carton (NEVER with paper) but must be folded. Should not be used as containers for other carton

This.

Basel-Stadt is the same, i.e. collection day for both is the same, and they chuck it all into the same truck - I guess for the ease of customers.
Recycling yard though - paper and cardboard containers seem to be separate.

A question I had about cardboard... in my canton, we are told not to put boxes from frozen food into the cardboard recycling...

Any idea why not?

In Winterthur they collect paper and carton on the same day. But they come twice! Once for paper, once for carton.
I know because I once asked them, what it is they don't like about my carton and they said "we come back for this later". LOL. Very environmental.

Maybe because some of them have a layer in it?
Some are pure carton and the actual food is in an additional plastic. Those boxes I put in for recycling.

Is there a well-defined Litmus test to recognise paper from cardboard in the edge cases?

As far as I know it also depends on the end-buyer and the intented purposes of what will be made of the paper/cardboard in the end, whether it is collected mishmash or separately.

This was the case in Biel/Brügg where they were very zealous and leaving anything that was mixed back by the kerb with a orange sticker on, whereas now in Belp, they collect it mixed in big containers.

I think the batmaid info is a tad misleading and it can't be generalised nationwide as such.

Cardboard of frozen food shouldn't be put in, because there is a thin layer of plastic coating on the cardboard.

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Also, how is this correct?

Do they have magic machines which pull those two away?
Or is it some special kind of "paper plastic" there?


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On a side note: Where can I recycle tetrapack? Used to be at Aldi, but seems they got overwhelmed and stopped collecting?

I often spend some time contemplating is Fever-Tree 4 bottle package a carton or a paper. The thickness is more of a paper, the stifness more of a carton. But than, structure is somewhere in between.

The process is so intense that I have to mix gin tonic after gin tonic. At some point, the answer becomes unimportant. Another case where the way is more important than the goal.