Germany re rubbish disposal

[Stuart]

Planning a couple of weeks in Germany next month, not having been for some time.

 

What are the current requirements for separating rubbish prior to disposal on site?

 

It's easy enough at home but there is limited space in the van for separate containers.

What does anybody else do?

Thanks in advance.

 

Stuart

[Klyne]

When we were there we put all the usual recyclables in a separate bag and dirty rubish in another. When you go to the Recycling Hof you just sort your rubbish. A lot of bottles, both glass and plastic have deposits on in Germany so you can if you wish return these to the supermarkets to reclaim. We often found there was no where for tins and cans which was puzzling.

 

David

[sooty10]

Just got back from Germany and we were surprised at the lack of recycle units on campgrounds. Most had places for glass and plastic and after that it all went in one skip. It was much the same on the sites in France and Holland. Like David we thought they would have places for cans but did not see any.

 

Hope you enjoy your journey as much as we did.

 

Sooty10

[Thai Bry]

Stuart - 2008-08-03 7:20 PM Planning a couple of weeks in Germany next month, not having been for some time. What are the current requirements for separating rubbish prior to disposal on site? It's easy enough at home but there is limited space in the van for separate containers. What does anybody else do? Thanks in advance. Stuart

Hi Stuart & welcome to the forum.

We've been touring to Germany for a number of years now. In fact off again very soon.

Most sites that we've used have the usual containers for bottles, green, brown & clear. They also have separate  skips for your cans, paper and then a skip for your general rubbish.

Well on the sites that we've used anyway.

Happy traveling

Thai

[Herri]

I think you'll find the reason there are no seperate bins for cans is that there is a deposit on drink cans (about € 0,25). Therefore if you buy a can of beer or coke you would take the can báck and get your deposit back.

No need for seperate bins.

Generally the germans dont use as much tinned stuff as the brits. There is also less packaging as by law shops have to take any secondary packaging off you. In other words if you buy a tube of toothpaste which is in a cardboard package you may leave the packaging at the shop and they have to despose of it.

In Holland, although recyling has been the norm for years, they do not mess about as much. Its either degradable (kitchen rubbish) which is made into compost or not. Paper and glass are seperated, glass is thrown into bins at your local supermarket and paper is collected once a month, normally by clubs and organisations such as scouts who sell it to paper recyling companies.

Hope this clears up some of the misteries.

Herri

[Stuart]

Thanks to all, sounds much more relaxed than I expected from the Germans, usually very efficient with these things.

Thanks again,

 

Stuart.

[Stuart]

Thanks to all, sounds much more relaxed than I expected from the Germans, usually very efficient with these things.

Thanks again,

 

Stuart.

[ollybear]

There is not only a 0,25E deposit on drink cans, but also on plastic bottles for any fizzy drink, incl. beer, mineral water lemonade etc. So the deposit is sometimes more expensive than the actual drink. These bottles carry a black/green recycling symbol and a barcode and are usually being returned in a collecting machine which you will find in any Aldi or Lidl shop. You can return your bottles in any shop no matter where you bought it, so Aldi will accept Lidl-bottles(or any other make). Since the introduction of this system, there are hardly any drink cans for sale anymore. Regarding tins, all recycabel materials except glass like plastic, compound, metal are being collected in one container (usually yellow) and separated later on. This is the standard for household-litter, there might be different solutions around locally.

[Klyne]

This is a slight aside to the main topic, but connected. Several of us have mentioned the deposit system in Germany when you buy things, mainly, in plastic bottles. I think its called a pfund(?). Because we can never work out what bottled water is still rather than gazzy we tend to buy Volvic as we quite like the taste. As far as I know this is delivered by the pallet shrink wrapped 6 bottles at a time. In order to forefill their need to take a deposit they must unwrap these packs and individually place them in crates. Interesting to see how other countries do things!

 

David