Can someone please let me know the differences between the Zurisack and the other black rubbish bags?

I live in Zurich and I have looked all over the intrenet and cannot find a concrete answer, such as:

1) What EXACTLY can/do you put in black bin bags?
2) What EXACTLY can/do you put in the Zurisacks?
3) If you put something not allowed in the Zurisack do you get fined?
4) If you put something not allowed in the black bin bags do you get fined?
5) If the answer is yes either to (3) or (4) how do you get fined, e.g. how do they find out it was you, if you do not throw away any receipts with your name on (which I never have done, or anything else with my name on).

Referrence to (1) and (2) above, what about normal household rubbish, e.g. milk cartons, meat packets, empty plastic soft drink bottles and other daily rubbish? In which bag do we have to thow them away? In the Zurisacks or in the black rubbish bags (which are sold in amples quantities in all supermarkets) ?

1. Chill out
2. Zurisacs are king and accommodate most household waste and packaging if not specifically for recycling.
3. Black Bin bags are for Phoenix Nights only.
4. Recycle cardboard, paper glass etc etc
5. Repeat 1. until calm.

I haven't yet worked out why they sell binbags since everything that can't be recycled has to go in the Zurisaecke. If you don't put your stuff that can't be recycled into a Zurisack, I think they can come after you and fine you.

There are places for recycling glass, plastic bags, tins. There are collections for paper and cardboard, which have to be tied up and not placed in a plastic bag (a bit of a pain). There are also collections for clothes and shoes. You can recycle plastic bottles at most supermarkets. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way of recycling tetra packs, so you need to flatten them so that they take up as little space as possible in your Zurisack.

You won't get fined for putting stuff you could recyle into a Zurisack, but Zurisaecke are expensive, so the more you put in, the more (tax) you will pay because you will need to buy more Zurisaecke.

kfc.

Here's some more info...

- Black bin bags are usually used by businesses that have a special container for their business only.
- Or you can use them as bin liners for the white bags
- Or for fancy dress

They have employees sorting out "illegal" rubbish at conveyor belts at the ERZ. If you don't want to get fined, you have to be more careful than leaving out envelopes with names and addresses. I've heard they can find the illegal dumper on the basis of recipes or even finger prints

Watch out when using black or white bin bags as bin liners. A friend used to do this, he would use a small white bag until full then tie it and place it in a Zurisack, with each Zurisack taking two or three full white bags.

This was all fine until the Zurisack split in the bin and the white sacks came out - in the end he was fined for not using a Zurisack for his rubbish.

There are plenty of uses for black and white bin bags out there apart from house hold rubbish, as others have said business and some apartment blocks have large bins that don't need zurisacks, we use black bags for cat litter, also for storage of things in the basement etc. etc.

You can also take Cardboard back to IKEA...very handy.
+ you should also have a "rubbish tip/recycling centre" somewhere near you where you can take stuff if you need to get rid of it early, or can't be arsed to tie everything up into neat bundles and tie it up with string.

I got all that info when I registered in a handy leaflet.

I have a colleague got fined by throwing the black bin bag in the rubbish container but forgetting to burn his letters/envelopes (he just torn them into pieces). After some time, he received a letter about the fine and also a proof of his address (obviously someone from the Gemeide likes jigsaw puzzles......)

Another colleague didn't know that he could not recycle glass bottles on Sunday. One sunday morning, while he was throwing the bottles into the recycle containers, he got a 'flash' by people around. Later on, of course
he received a letter for the fine and a photo of himself.

I also find that people like to leave their rubbish in the carpark of Carrefour in Dietlikon......

Regarding envelopes, I thought I read here you're not supposed drop the envelopes with windows in with the paper, is this correct?

As to stuff with addresses, shred everything.

Thank you all for your input.

Let me get this straight... I have noted the following:

1) Black bin bags are for putting rubbish in them which CAN be recycled.

2) The Zurisacks are for putting rubish in them which CANNOT be recycle.

Is this correct?

3) If you just use the black bin bags and not the Zurisacks, do not throw any letters or paper away with your name on.

4) Black bin bags are normally for businesses (even though they are readily available in all supermarkets). Isn't this confusing, since you do not see the Zurisacks on the supermarket shelves?

5) Provided I got (1) and (2) above correct, then the next question is, what is recycable out of your normal daily shopping waste?

Here it is simply

As a householder you can not normally get away with using a black bag or white bin bag for any type of rubbish unless it is placed inside a ZuriSack. Most recycling stuff is bundled or just needs to be transported to the recycling point in a bag and therefore any bag will do (most use the paper shopping bags from the supermarkets).

Mail - shred anything with your address on & any important doc like a bank statement - pile up all other paper and tie into bundles for paper recyle day.

Cardboard - remove name and address labels if from the mail and collect all cardboard (can be food packaging, piazza boxes etc), bundle and tie and place outside on cardboard recycle days.

NOTE - bundles of paper and cardboard normally have to be seperate and each must not weigh more than 5kg or the collectors do not have to take them.

Collect glass bottles and jars and put these into the local recycle bins. Many of the bin places also have bins for old batteries, metal and paper shopping bags depending on how far you want to go.

Collect plastic bottles, if they have a depot they go back to the shop, if not squeeze the air out of them and collect them together - there should be a PET bin and a milk bottle bin at your supermarket.

Green material - plants and grass cuttings etc can be put in green recycle bins - vegie peelings also but no meat / other food products (this all depends on where you live).

Clothes - every now and again you will get a Textaid bag through the mail with a pickup date printed on it, load it with clothes and leave it outside on the date. Or take your old clothes in a normal bin bag to a TextAid container and pop them in.

Electronic items - these are taken to any electronics shop and they have to accept them for recycling for no charge.

Everything else goes in the Zurisack and you squeeze as much in as possible without spliting the sides.

If you go to the big supermarkets like the CooP off the highway at Dietikon they have recycling for PET, plastic milk bottles, paper bags, batteries, britta filters and bottles with refunds.

Yes, this is confusing, especially for new comers. Nonetheless, I think
this is a good way to practice your swiss german while trying to buy them
from the counter. I just say "Abfall Sacke" but now I prefer to get them
from the shelves of M-Parc...

Ok thanks.

Next question...

You can just put the rubbish out (the zurisacks) in the big bin just outside your appartment any day and time right?

1) no, there is no use for black bin bags except for businesses with their own container.
2) correct
4) Zürisacks are not in supermaket shelves because they're expensive and get stolen, that's why you have to ask for them at the checkout.

5)
- you can bring back GLASS, CANS, METALL and old OIL at the sammelstelle with the blue containers which are quite frequent in the districts. Here is a link where those containers are. http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/internet...rg/sammel.html

- bring PET BOTTELS back to the store where you bought it. They're obliged to taket it, the easiest are Migros and Coop, they provide containers in front of the stores or inside.

- CARDBOARD and old PAPER are collected once a month (cardboard) or every two weeks (paper). There is a free sms-alert that will tell you the day before they collect it.. Register, then choose the district where you life and if you want the alert for Karton or Papier... http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/internet...ewaccount.html

Careful: they don't collect paper or cardboard that you put into paper bags, it must be done with a cord...

Thank you very much for your helpful reply.

One last question: What happens if you put out your recycling materials, e.g. cardboard and paper, when there is no collection until another month or, until another week or so?

45 days jail, 20 days remission for good behaviour. What kind of answer do you expect ?

dave

- Black bags are indeed for businesses and academic institutions who have special contracts with the city to remove them.... so the price for watse collection is included in the contract with the company... hence black bags are cheaper.

-Züribags are for all general household rubbish. Should you not want to recycle there are no major complaints about dumping everything inside (they are sorted anyways... hence the high taxes on the bags)

-old clothes and shoes get special bags delivered to you in the post, with details of collection days in your area printed on the bag.

-special bags are sold for the disposal of food waste in case you don't wish to waste a whole züribag by making it smelly...

-dump rubbish in black bags at your peril.... should someone see you, all it takes is their word that they saw you and the presence of the bag in the rubbish and that "friendly" letter with a nice fine is all yours.

Now that the black bag-white bag question is answered, there's a thread about recycling here.

There are hit squads that travel round Zurich (I would presume also other places) that pick up the illegal bags & go through them to find evidence of who dumped them. I always thought this was a joke until I saw it first hand.

After relocating and having all our stuff packed into a 41ft container I was wondering what happens to the left over packaging once we have unpacked, do we split and recycle as you suggest or do the freight companies take it away when they take the container?