If your gemeinde collects waste for composting, nothing wrong with cooked foods. Would probably leave meats and fish out though

I do not know anything about the chemical processes involved in composting, I was referring to the guidelines which we received from what everybody on this forum calls 'gemeinde'. The guidelines are clear, all food, regardless of whether it is cooked or raw, should go to green compost bags and not to ordinary waste.

In the little area in the US where I occasionally live, about the size of Canton Thurgau, surrounded by the huge Great Lakes and hundreds of smaller lakes, I've heard and read about far more cases of water pollution than in almost 60 years in Switzerland. Dream on.

Fish bones are excellent for compost.

Except those who call it the "commune".

Mine all goes in my compost pile.

Plus we don't have green, or any other official bags here. Tax-free garbage!

Tom

Yes, but the commune never sends me anything (except for tax bills)

Tom

You mean they can drink water out of the tap without it tasting of chlorine and it is still healthy?....

Sorry I know this post is old but oh well. In re. to garbage disposals (which I miss dearly) how do you compost if you live in an apartment as we do? And are there really "official" garbage bags? I've just been using old plastic shopping bags from the states that made their way here as packing materials when I shipped all my stuff over.

Up here in the German speaking part, every apartment block has a "green container" into which you can throw your compostable rubbish. Probably the same down there.

Plus I believe everywhere in Switzerland now has official rubbish bags. Nothing special about the bags themselves, rather this is the fee for disposing of your rubbish. The more rubbish you have, the more you pay.

That is incorrect...I rarely see those green bins where I live.

We don't.

Tom

The problem with those are also, that they're each printed per Gemeinde as there are places in Switzerland that don't have Mehrwertsteuer as yet. A more ideal way to sell "government" bags would be if there were either one "national" bag or a "cantonal" bag to choose from....but having to do a bag for each village is somewhat beyond ignorant.

Mehrwertsteuer (VAT) is universal (OK apart from Samnaun) and nothing to do with rubbish collection.

The rubbish bags are Gemeinde specific because rubbish disposal is the responsibility of the Gemeinde and they don't want to pay for other peoples rubbish. Around here at least most shops stock bags for all the local Gemeinde so no problem in finding yours.

Where we live, the bags from three different Gemeindes are interchangeable which makes it even easier.

I'm completely lost...(in re. to the bags!)

I haven't seen a specific Green dumpster for food refuse, but I will keep an eye out. But so then what...do you have 2 diff. trash cans in your apartment? And do you take the food scraps one out every day/night? (Just curious.)

I can't speak to what they do up there in the German-speaking part, but I can tell you what we do in Lausanne. The black bags in the Coop or the Migros that are marked 35L are for your regular trash, which, if you live in town, is picked up twice a week.

I'm guessing this is where I put what you are calling food scraps, although my husband and I are only two people, so we don't generate much food waste. Are you talking about carrot tops, apple cores, olive pits, etc? I throw those in the regular trash, but you could also put those in your yard waste bags (marked 60L) or your brown yard waste bin that says "vegetable cru".

In the German speaking part I live in we buy stickers for waste disposal, that can go on any standard sized sack. We have communal compost heaps in various places around the town.

Hmmm! All very interesting...I think I have seen those "Vegetable Cru" ones around town, but we don't have one in our building. We have a few diff. dumpsters downstairs, 2 for trash, then paper/cardboard, glass, and there's a PET one in the garage. I guess I'll keep using the old shopping bags from the states for now, til someone official tells me I can't. One of the "3 R's" is reuse after all!

Yes - two under the sink- one for green waste and one for normal non-re-cycleable rubbish.

We take them out when they're full.


That's not really the done thing in lil' ol Europe.

It really does vary from Gemeinde (Commune) to Gemeinde. For general refuse, some use purpose specific sacks that you must buy from local outlets and price includes additional collection fee; or (like me) you buy cheap all-purpose refuse sacks from anywhere and stick on a locally bought sticker whose price includes the fee.

I'm guessing that the question regarding composting is asked more out of being eco-friendly, as opposed to the desire of wanting to make your own compost. You can use any smallish container to store unwanted vegetable type waste - there are specific containers (often green and approx shoe box size) that you can buy for said purpose - but only worthwhile if there is a provided convenient main disposal point. Probably best to ask the caretaker type person where you live.