Did you guys see how many different categories we have to sort our trash here in Southern Bavaria? We have been told it's different in other parts of Germany. Also, it must be noted that we live in a very small town, so that changes the recycling resources we have here. So please make sure to tell us what it's like in your town/Kreis/Bundesland so we can get the complete picture of what it's like here in Germany!
Here in Bremen / state of Bremen there are yellow bags. Everything that is recycled can go into it. It is sorted by the company. But we pay fees for this. The bags are picked up every 2 weeks. I try to use plastic as little as possible. Nets for unpacked vegetables save a lot. Instead of Tetrapack there are now cardboard milk cartons. They are disposed of in the paper.
If you want to reduce the ammount of plastic trash, try to fiind shops called "Nimm's Lose" or packaging free shops. You can bring your own containers to fill them up with flour, pasta, Rice, nuts, cereals etc. We have one in Rosenheim and when you come up to us, I show it to youo. Btw, the way of recycling differs from district to district. We in Rosenheim have the containers all over the place for the different glass, paper, compost and everything plastic and tin cans. If you buy a lot of water, lemonade or juices, try to find a Getränkemarkt and get everything from there. You buy everything in their boxes (like the bierkiste) and you bring everything back, the boxes are much easier to store and you don't have the hassle of bringing everything to the store to check if the machine takes it. Composting or biomass are two different things. Biomass is every food that can not be composted, like cooked food or tea bags, etc. That stuff is used to make energy. Everything that does not compost in 4 weeks goes into the bio mass, with the exception of the biodegradable packing peanuts. I had a box of biodegradable (compostable) packing peanuts and was not sure if those can be tossed into the compost and called our Inviroment office in the city hall and they told me that those go into the normal trash. Our system can be complicated but you get used to it eventually. If your paper bin is full before they come to collect it, take a big cardbord box for the rest and put it beside the bin on collection day, they will pick it up tooas long as everything is cut down and pressed flat.
Well, for us in BW (Karlsruhe) it is usually much easier. Although that often differs from city to city or municipality always something, but so complicated I have not yet experienced. Even at the recycling center with us it is not so cumbersome!
With those recycling skills you could get the Austrian citizenship as well. 😉 We have the same categories at our Altstoffsammelzentrum, but we are going to get a yellow bag in 2022.
Where you live, that kind of plastic recycling is unique, even for Germany. Most places in Germany have a yellow bin or yellow garbage bag for all the plastic and metal cans. You only drive to the recycling center / wertstoffhof, if you have way more, then you can throw away the normal way. Like the paper - we can simply place additional paper next to our paper bin when it gets taken away
I live in Leipzig so you can even throw small electronics like a broken hair dryer into the Gelbe Tonne. They just have a different system here and call it Gelbe Tonne +.
Bayern macht es - wie so oft - sehr viel besser als alle anderen Bundesländer! Es lebe der Freistaat, es leben das föderale System, es lebe unser vorbildliches, liebenswertes Deutschland, das seit vielen Jahren mit großem Abstand beliebteste Land der Welt!
Good point it generally differed locally. But things like Pfand and gelbe Tonne or gelber Sack (DSD Produkte) are standard in whole Germany. Just well west people call it gelber Sack or gelbe Tonne and some may use different Colours/ Tonnen
also i would recommend buying a battery recharger and only buy rechargable batteries (Akkus) so you have no more gargabe from old batteries and save money. Makes especialy sense in a big family
Also you forgot ANOTHER category: the donation bins for used clothes, shoes, bedclothes and used glasses in particular reading glasses. But check before, many places organize children clothes swap fairs, maybe there is one in your place or close by I agree with TheIncredible1984! Even more, buy a solar battery charger and a battery charge tester, and put the kids to do the charging job! they will love it! (if they do not charge, then they cannot play...) Another question, if you take magazines to the AltPapier (like Der Spiegel or TV guide or similar things) do you take out the staples? If not you should do it, and put the staples on the metal container. Ordnung über alles!!! And remember the yogurt metal lid to one container and the yogurt plastic to another. In East Germany the recycling was even more intense, even the hair cuts from the Frisseurs had to be recycled. And there was a joke: By law, every enterprise had to have a recycling plan, but every year one enterprise always got a penalty fee for not doing so: the toilet paper combine. But I am sure that the Germans will find a way to do so.
@@formerlyinpragur4736 There are also organisations which take old used stuff (clothes, but also games, books, and whatever else people might need) and sell them in special charity shops where only low income people are allowed to shop.
Don't worry, there's hardly a German who does everything a 100% right. Just try your best. E.g. my house does not have a Biotonne, so this goes into Restmüll.
In my hometown it is even prohibited by regulation (with fine) to put organic waste into the Restmülltonne. So, it not even depends on states, but also by county/city.
It doesn't have a Biotonne? Oof. On the other hand, people at our place still dump small *plastic bags* filled with biological waste in there from time to time even though it specifically states no bag of any kind should be in there. Which results in extra costs for the community.
WTF? I live in northern Germany and we only have bins for paper (blue), "der grüne Punkt" (mostly all kind of packaging) (yellow), organic stuff (brown), residual waste (grey or black), glas and the deposite machines in the stores. The fruit containers, plastic packaging, tetra packs ... we dispose it all in one bin (the yellow one). We only go to the recycling center if we have larger items such as bulky waste or garden waste. But bulky waste can also be picked up from home free of charge.
The rules are made by the Landkreis. They differ very strongly. In Böblingen you can bring in your trash to the Wertstoffhof and storting is an absolutly nightmare. It is absolutly insane. In Karlsruhe you are not supposed to bring it in. The yellow bin is supposed to be used. And in Ludwigsburg they only differ in the form like flat, rolls and Kubes. The real sorting is done by machines there.
About the green and brown glass: If you are unsure put it in the green container since green glass can be recycled from non-pure Altglas. Brown glass needs to be relatively pure brown glass in order to be recyclable into new brown glassware. This also means that other colours like blue glass goes into the green container.
That’s interesting because here in the U.K. we are told to put any coloured glass we are unsure about into the brown glass container. Also if the clear or green glass containers are full you can put everything in with the brown glass.
Green and brown glass has his colour fron iron oxid. So it s relative easy to turn the colour by add or reduce the iron (Fe2/Fe3). Clear glass has non of it so it s importend to be sepetated.
I visited Germany two years ago and everything there made sense. The culture is much more structured and obeyed rules more respectively than the US, and I loved it. I would love to expat there someday.
Each to their own i guess. I know americans who saw the same behavior as literal slavery. I don`t know. Following at least some guidelines that benefit all is called being "not an asshole" i would say. Sometimes american behavior for me is really strange, although iam part american and lived there for a year.
Wow. This is what i call fully germanized. You should get an Award for your efforts. If we all would recycle like this the world would be a nicer place.
A typical german word: "Entsorgen" which means disposal but literally translates to "getting rid of worry". So it is satisfying to take a tour to the Wertstoffhof, because you have to worry less afterwards.
Correct. And at the beginning "entsorgen" was used for dangerous disposal like poison or radioactive stuff. That's why the "getting rid of worry" or maybe "getting rid of responsability" makes sense.
I laughed so hard when Kevin talked about not knowing if the bottle was brown or green. That's so so German. It's like someone made a mistake and he was supposed to have been born German to begin with. As we'd say "An ihm ist ein Deutscher verloren gegangen".
You can bring that Lammsbräu Kiste back to a shop which also sells them. They should actually take it back. Also the bottles in it. For this special types of bottles and Kisten it is sometimes hard to find a shop that takes it back.
Yes, the store generally has to take back what it sells. So the Lammsbräu bottles probably had a deposit but the store did not take them because they are not sold in that particular store... Yes, I know. Way to be complicated! But that's also why they tell you it is a Pfandflasche at the Alm: If you finish it there and then you can bringt the bottle back inside and they have to take it back and give you back your deposit. And the worst thing is: after you have figured it all out, if you move to another municipality, the rules might be totally different! So annoying! Many municipalities also publish little booklets in various languages explaining the system in detail, you can probably pick one up somewhere in the Bürgerbüro/Rathaus.
17:09 Landfills are widely a thing of a long gone past in Germany. The 'Restmüll' (residual waste) usually goes to a 'Müllverbrennungsanlage' (waste incineration plant) where it gets incinerated and they make energy out of it. So one reason for sorting all recyclable stuff out is to prevent that precious recyclable material just gets incinerated
Same here in Switzerland in regard to waste incineration, and because of that there is a category of stuff that is impossible to incinerate and is neither toxic nor valuable (ceramics and ‘non-food glass’ like broken picture frames, mirrors etc.) called ‘Grubengut’ that actually still goes to landfills and is thus collected separately, not going into ‘Restmüll’. If you were to fed it into an incinerator, it would just add to the ashes which have to be deposited more carefully than the Grubengut and it would reduce the heat generated from waste incineration as well as taking up capacity in the incinerator. Similar reasons apply to biomass, as the mixture coming from households is often wet which reduces the heat output from incineration. Fermentation and composting can be used to extract energy in the more useful form of biogas, keeping part of the carbon in it in solid form (instead of converting all into CO2 as incineration does) and probably makes waste handling easier by keeping everything that can decay on its own in its own separate feed.
Die dünnen Plastikflaschen haben oft 25cent Pfand! Also nicht einfach wegschmeißen!!! And I think you recycle way more than I do and I’m German 🙈 I have to rethink what I’m doing daily in my kitchen 😉
Though naturally ideally you don't even buy them at all. Instead you buy your drinks at a proper Getränkehalle in proper "Mehrwegflaschen", meaning you bring back the empty bottles and they get reused. Sadly since the "Einwegpfand" has been introduced, the use of disposable plastic has risen, even though the Mehrweg-System is preferable due to less waste.
@@kevinmcfall5285 @Tek Mehrweg plastic (like Coke or Fanta) are in fact 0,15€ and glass (beer etc) 0,08€. Einweg plastic bottles with the official "Pfandlogo" is where the money is... 🤣
@@kevinmcfall5285 there is that black and white symbol on the plastic bottles that's being recognised by the return machine scanner. If that's on it, the bottle is worth 25ct.
I‘m touched and concerned at the same time… touched because of your interest and efforts and concerned about my life😂 I‘m a 44 year old German mom living in Stuttgart, have also lived in 3 other countries, and have only ever separated into: 1. Gelber Sack (all plastic, packaging etc) 2. Paper/cardboard etc 3. Restmüll (literally the rest of your garbage😄) 4. compost (I only use it for gardening stuff though..leaves etc) 5. glass and batteries… collect those for quite a long time and then just bringthem round the corner I have never been to a „Wertstoffhof“🙄😃 So don‘t worry too much…doing really great!
Oh really! I think things are quite different here in our town than they are in other places in Germany. In our town, everyone we know goes to the Wertstofhof on a regular basis and we have no Gelber sak and must sort our own plastic.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife It's because she lives in a big city. There they don't seperate so much. But that's not good for the environment. Better to learn the rules like you did. Once you got it, you do it automatically without thinking a lot. Only bothers you in the beginning. XDD
Most of the thinner drinks bottles (really only except juice) and also all drinks cans carry Einweg-Pfand, which is 25 cents and therefore quite a bit higher than the Mehrweg-Pfand of 8 or 15 cents. You have been throwing money in the trash. Take them back to a store instead - often you can use the same machine for returning Einweg and Mehrweg bottles.
@@philippschmidt4053 Das stimmt nicht so ganz nur Fruchtsäfte haben keinen Pfand. Eistee z.B. hat auch Pfand oder Stilles Wasser ebenfalls, die Aussage stimmt nicht!!
I remember when that "Recyclemania" started in the late 80´s early 90´s and as a Kid which i was at this Time i found it exciting. For now looking backward it was a great Step to keep the Space much cleaner then it was before. Now it feels absolutely normal to recycle my Trash. Sorry my English, it´s been a long Time to speak or write English but your Channel is so good to refresh my Skills.
Beer crates are always multiuse. For crates like yours, you might have to return them where you bought them since others might not accept that special brand. Breweries are also having a hard time getting their crates back and running shortages due to more and more people building bars, tables, beds, sofas out of beer crates.
Here are some tips for your organic waste problem: You need to clean your organic waste bin from time to time. It also helps if you put a thin layer of straw, sawdust, egg cartons at the bottom. This helps against maggots: Mix salt, vinegar essence and water and put the mixture in the bin. After the appropriate time, leave the bin to air dry. Maggots come from flies that lay their eggs in the bin. Always close the lid of the bin so that the flies do not get in in the first place. So-called Biotonnenpulver (bio-bin powder ) is available on the market. It binds odours and is said to be biological. (no experience with that) By the way, I live in Oberbayern, too. But our recycling is much much easier. For example, you can put the TetraPaks, cans, caps, tubes and all sorts of plastic in one bag or container.😁
Tip for your bio trash can: wash it after it is emptied next time with Water, until it is clean. Then take a piece of wood and lay it under the Deckel to keep it open, so air can go into it. It will smell less. My grandpa does it his life long and it works perfectly. In some citys in summer biotrash ist emptied every week without extra cost.
@@reinhard8053 many Insects have their eggs in the waste, before you even buy the fruits...so I think it would keep some Insects in and those, whitch don't have teir eggs in the waste out.. but I don't think it helps against the smell,.because the smell comes from rotting compost...
In former times the carpenters produced coffins and Kisten and wardrobes. It's all the same stuff. Therefore they used the same word for all this things, too.
Back in the nineties, my German mother-in-law used to cut out the plastic windows from envelopes and separate paper tags and staples from the tea bags. A fun way to spend your retirement, I used to think. German recycling zeal goes way back.
Kevin if you have your first bottle made of blue glass - please make a video how you try to figure out where to put it in in the Werkstoffhof. Btw. As a german who speaks Swedish let me explain: A kista and a Kiste are no false friends. The main meaning of "Kiste" is a wooden box. You can also say "er liegt in der Kiste" (He lies in the box) to say something like "He lies 6 feet under". And even the Swedish box låda is related to many words like the German Schublade or the english "to load"
Not all more flexible plastic bottles go into the garbage... those with the Mehrwegflaschen-symbol also get returned to the store (Symbol with a can, a bottle and a curved arrow)
@@hovawartfreunde4599 I didnt´t want to confuse them with german Verschachtelungswörtern, so that they do not fall into the Verschachtelungswortkonfusionsverzweiflungsfalle.
@@hovawartfreunde4599 Ausserdem, netter Name! Ein (leider verstorbener) Freund der Familie hatte auch einen Hovawart, und ich hab sie immer wieder bei mir zum dogsitting gehabt, zuletzt für 4 Monate, bevor sie eine neue, tolle Familie gefunden hat. Super Hunderasse, ich vermisse sie manchmal wirklich!
11:40 if in doubt if a bottle is green, drop it into brown glass. The order of reusability is white -> green -> brown glass. If white glass gets contaminated with green, the whole batch is processed to green and same is for brown glass if green gets too contaminated 15:50 the bio mass is dumped into bio domes to rotten it and harvest bio gas which is methane
against the Smell: Keep the Biotonne clean and as dry as possible. The paper bags are a great start, but you can also put eggshels and paper towels down at the bottom
Yes..you can look online and the recycle department have tips how to deal with your organic bin... Infact sometimes the trash men will leave you an information note. They did that for me once because in winter when it gets really cold the organics freeze and then do not empty out.. The trash men left me an information sheet which said to put some cardboard at the bottom of the bin.. This soaks up any liquid and stops the organics freezing to the bottom, so it will still empty when they tip it out even at - 10c. I always put cardboard in the bottom of my organic bin now (I cut down cardboard boxes to fit the bottom of the bin), even in summer... This also helps against strong smells! Also keep the bin in the shade. A heavy brick on the lid also makes it more difficult for the flies to get under the lid.. Which will reduce flies and therefore maggots.
Most sodas and waters purchased in the bendable plastic bottles are to be returned to the grocery store for Pfand. Exempt are usually fruit juices purchased in the same bottles
You only have to bring bottles and special trash to the Wertstoffhof, Tetrapak and mixed household trash is "grüner Punkt" that you put into the "Gelber Sack"! ;)
Hallo there are different rules in every Kreis (County). We habe yellow bags for all Plastik. A hint for your Biomüll. Use this Material you buy for a Cats toilette. Always put a handful of this over your Biomüll, when you throw something in. You will habe no smell and no maggots. You are doing this very well.
In Lower Saxony we have Bio, Paper, Yellow (the green button) and Rest. But your recycling is very complicated and I‘m sure nearly nobody does it so special and correctly like you.
@@ullakroger7866 ich kenne es aus Hannover auch, dass wir blauen Säcke für Papier und die normalen gelbe Säcke hatten. Die schwarzen Säcke wurden reglementiert. Die blauen Papiersäcke kosteten dann was. Aber es wurde öfter geleert. Hier in Ostfriesland wird alles außer Bio nur alle 4 Wochen geleert. Das ist echt selten.
Hahaha,🤭✌️ it was a lot of fun to watch you explaining all these things. Kevin is becoming an expert, he did it so well, maybe he can do a TV show for recycling in the future. You can spend so much time in Germany for recycling, it can be a kind of hobby. In Germany usually the grocery stores like Rewe or Edeka have boxes for the batteries, mostly at the place where you can pack your stuff into the shopping bags. In Vienna, Austria we have something for normal garbage and paper near to the house and somewhere on the street are places for glass bottles white and colour, for all the plastics and metal. And the groceries have machines for Pfand bottles. My parents in Berlin have all the garbage cans near to the house at the side of their court with big cans for plastic, bio, different bottles, paper, metal and normal garbage. With the beer bottles they have to go to the grocery store, mostly Netto. When I visit my family in Germany i always ask them the first day's how it goes. Thanks for sharing that important topic with us. It's always funny to see it with the eye's of someone else. ☺️😜
Kudos, your German is progressing very nicely. Hamburg: no separation of Gemischtkunststoff / mixed plastic and PE plastic or specific plastic bottles that are not Pfand / deposit. Either it has the Grüner Punkt / green dot recycling marker, or it has the Pfand / deposit marker of any material. Any plastic or tin cans, including TetraPaks are usually Grüner Punkt / green dot recycling. Anything with Grüner Punkt is either dumped into a Gelbe Tonne / yellow trash bin, or a Gelber Sack / yellow bag. Here in Hamburg you can get two rolls of yellow bags with twenty or so bags each for free from any Wertstoffhof / recycling center. So most people decide to take the yellow bags. Pro of the yellow bin: almost always unaffected by wind or weather; larger capacity; can be compacted with recyclable trash for more content; outside, so less smelly. pro of yellow bag: cheap; small; easy to store until used; can be placed anywhere within the proximity of the street outside your home on collection day, as it is picked up by hand. Cons yellow bin: one MORE bin outside (either three or four minimum); needs a space next to the street for the trash trucks to collect (in Germany's congested city streets, a real downside); fairly expensive to rent; fairly large space occupied even when empty. cons yellow bag: smelly once filled, because it is usually stored inside until the day they are collected which is usually once every 14 days; can be blown away during stormy weather even when filled; very flimsy, rips easily thus can't be stuffed full; looks butt ugly when several such bags are stacked at the side of the street; is translucent so people can see what you threw away (only for those anxious of others' opinions). Glass: if it has the Pfand marker, it can be returned. If it doesn't it belongs into the specific glass color recycling containers (clear, brown, green). If the glass color doesn't exist as a container, it is Restmüll / remaining trash. Agreed, beer bottles are exceptional cases, but I'd go for 99.9% of the time they are Pfand that should be returned. Your breweries will thank you on their knees in hot summers (that means, not this one 😁), as during the last three hot summers they ran into bottle shortages when people didn't immediately return the empty bottles. All cased drinks that I know of are ALWAYS Pfand. Buuuuuut, some companies decided to kick the can and make their own Pfandsystem which can ONLY be redeemed at certain stores (usually where you bought them). I have decided to boycott such companies as they make it much more difficult and complex to recycle. If drinks come in bottles stored in cases, you normaly can return the case with empty bottles in the case as they are scanned for content by the deposit return machine. The machines are usually smart enough to recognize the number of bottles and accurately calculate the Pfand including the case on your reciept. Batteries: yepp, any location selling batteries is REQUIRED by law to also offer a special container to return batteries. But, obviously, the recycling centers will take back batteries. It is a pretty lucrative business as batteries contain worthwhile metals that can be fairly easily recycled, but that are pretty harmful to the environment if left to rot and rust. Pro tip for your kids: get Akkus (rechargable batteries) and a charging station. While more expensive to purchase, in the long run they will easily return the investment over their lifetimes AND it will help the environment. Styrofoam and other fluffy packaging materials: yepp, those are just huuuuuge volume hogs, and would instantly fill up any yellow bins or bags with virtually no weight. So the recycling centers here have their own dedicated containers where these are stored. But not to the degree you described: is it big or small, and fluffy but light, or large and rigid but light it goes into the packaging container, no differentiation between rigid styrofoam or fluffy packing peanuts. One exception: there are certain bio-degradable packing peanuts made from corn starch: they can go into the Biotonne or the bio-degradable bin at the Wertstoffhof. Which brings us to the bio-degradable stuff: basically anything plant based goes in there that can be changed to compost. Either on your own plot of land in a composter, or in the Biotonne where it is collected. Here in Hamburg you are not supposed to add meat or animal products to the Biotonne, as it is known to attract rats, but it may be different in your location. I assume rats are more of a city problem than a rural problem. No matter what anyone tells you: decomposing organic compounds STINK to high heaven. That is part and parcel of the decomposition process. Ask any chemistry student about it; the components of organic compounds decomposing are absolute stink producers. Gagging is still a fairly tame reaction to some of the smells; projectile vomiting is fairly common. The warmer the weather, the more it happens. Anyone who ever turned over a large compost pile will know what I am talking about. Unless it is completely vaccuum sealed or stored in a CO2 environment with more than 90% CO2 content, maggots will find a way inside. That is basically a given. While it is not a nice sight to behold, it is absolutely essential that decomposition happens.
Regarding the Neumarkter Lammsbräu cases and also bottles, I’m pretty sure that they have a deposit, so you shouldn’t bring them to the Wertstoffhof. Generally speaking, the shop where you buy things has to accept those bottles back. I don’t think I ever saw them in the supermarket, I only sold tons of them when I worked in catering and we always collected them and I think a supplier took them back. You can probably get some money back, I would guess 8ct per bottle and 1,50€ for the case, so it‘s probably 2,30€ per case. Btw for regular size beer cases you get 3,10€ which is 1,50€ for the empty case and 8ct per empty bottle (there are 20 of them in it)
I am also really sure because I buy it sometimes - maybe you tried to return it in a shop that doesn't sell it? Neumarktes Lammsbräu is sold basically in every organic grocery store (like Alnatura) all over Germany. Fun fact: I grew up near Neumarkt, where the beer comes from. It used to be a local brewery, a family business, but they changed to organic beer very early, like in the early 80s, and now it's sold across the country.
A Suggestion for your Biomasse: if you have some space in a corner of your garden: build a Komposthaufen. It is simply a pile for your biomasse where it can decompose slowly. It’s not as nasty as these bins and after a while you have compost soil for your garden and a place for biodiversity. And the best benefit: from a certain point on the pile stops growing. It is pretty common for house owners here to have one.
we have the yellow bin/sack as well, it gets separated of course, but that is done at a recycling factory. Sometimes it may also be simply burned for energy which is not the best way of getting rid of it of course, but at least the burning is controlled and filtered again.
Plastic/Compound materials. Carton/paper. Biowaste. Pfand. Glass/Batteries (separated later on). Mixed trash. Just 6 kinds of trash and you're pretty well off on recycling already. 7 if you separate paper and carton.
PE stands for polyethylene, there are quite a few other abbreviations you can find on plastic items in Europe if you are interested in chemistry such as PS (polystyrene), PP (polypropylene), PET (polyethylene terephthalate) etc etc
Yes and PE-LD stands for PE-low-density, that's why it's flexible, there is PE-HD too, which is the high-density PE obviously. But it's hard to recycle plastic, that's why they try to get clean material of just one version in one container to melt it and make new such things. I occationally do 3D printing (with less than 100g 3D print waste per year! I just print things that I want to keep. When I don't like the looks or the "predicted" function (would it work as it should?) when I design it, then I don't print it ;-) and I have seen quite some differences in the materials and I don't dare to recycle it on my own. It gets unpredictable. So I can imagine how difficult it would be to recycle the household plastic items from grocery shopping... And that unpredictability is why there often is a downcycling where they make less sophisticated items out of recycled plastic, because there are plastic parts in it that should not have been there.
In NRW the Restmüll wouldn't be brought in a landfill it will be burned in very big ovens at a incineration plant. I think other states will do the same. I don't know of any Landfill here in the Ruhrgebiet. The ashes from the waste burning will be used when repairing or building streets or used making bricks for special use. The exhaust gases from the incineration plant are cleaned in a very sophisticated process and the resulting dust will be made to plaster, so when renovating you'll probably use someones waste. There was a minor error in dividing the paper. You normally can only use cardboard or newspaper for recycling. All other "paper" can't be used and will be sorted out. Especially if it's coloured (other than black) that will be a chemical with heavy metals that are poisenous for the environment. Years ago I learned a little trick: If you burn paper and it burns like paper than it can be recycled. If it burns funny like colourful, making smoke that smells like acid or shrinking like plastic it mostly is special waste that has to be separatley disposed like batteries or laquer colors. I was told to put it in the Restmüll because when incinerated it will be harmless.
Hi :) .... well its run by Kreis/County - like your friends in the black forest (Baden-Württemberg) I have here in northern Rheinland-Pfalz all plastics to go into the yellow bin(as well as the tetrapaks) , paper in the blue, all glass (which is no Pfand) goes into the collecting container (seperated by colour of course^^) and all the rest goes to the Restmüll. (tin and aluminium going as well into the yellow). And to answer kevins Question: Biomasse is often used to generate energy (by burning, i think?) - but Biomasse from garden(-ing) like cut grass, leaves, wood etc. is fermented to compost, which you can get free as new fertilizer for your own garden.
In Berlin the biomass is used to make biogas and some of the lorries and cars of the garbage-company are run with that biogas or it's used to heat the buildings.
Lammsbräu bottles (the green beer bottle) are deposit bottles. But Lammsbräu has their unique kind of bottles, so you can return them only in places that sell Lammsbräu. If Edeka sells these bottles and the machine declines to accept them, ring for assistance. The machines sometimes have problems to recognise all kinds of bottles right. If Edeka does not sell Lammsbräu, return it at the store you bought it. The same goes for the Lammsbräu beer case. You can only return it at places that sell it. In general there are no containers for beer or sparkling sodas and Schorles that are deposit free. It is either 25ct plastic bottle/ aluminium can deposit or 8/15ct glass bottle deposit. But shops only must accept bottles of a format that they sell.
Tip to keep the Biotonne clean: 1.Wash it sometimes straight after they empty it sometimes it’s enough just to rinse it out with water. 2. Keep your daily biomass wrapped in old newspapers. Good luck 😉 Really enjoy your videos👍
If possible, then keep the lid of the trash can open and put the can in a cool place. The decomposition process of the biomass starts immediately and allows warmth and moisture to develop. If the lid remains closed, the moisture stays inside and condenses on the bin shell and lid, keeping the biomass moist and warm. Warm and moist biomass decomposes faster with corresponding smell. Try to keep the biomass cool and dry.
We live in Lower Saxony and we seperate our waste into 6 categories: Altpapier (paper, cardboard etc), Verpackung (packaging from plastic, metal or styropor etc), Kompost (we put it in our composting place in the garden), Restmüll (waste like cooked foodwaste, old cloth that cannot be used again, toothbrushes, paperhandkerchief etc), Altglas (green, brown or white mostly wine-bottles, oilcans, pickeled vegs, jam ect) and Pfandglas (bottles for beverages, mostly glass but also plastic/Mehrweg) We have three garbage cans: One emtied by the lokal Abfallentsogung the Restmülltonne, the Altpapiertonne and the Verpackungsmülltonne called Gelbe Tonne - both emtied by a private Recycling-company. We only rarely have to bring any waste to the Werkstoffhof. Batteries, light bulbs and corks from wine-bottles can be put in a box in the supermarket. The Altglasscontainer ist to ne found on the parking lot of the supermarket. It's a challenge at first to find out what to do with your waste in Germany, but this system is a try to reduce waist or at least make the best of it (to recycle it).
yes, there's money in "them that trash". Several documentary films show how they do it. Unfortunately they barely make any profit, but there's hope that when *everyone* recycles as well as you do, then it will pay off big!
I live in lower saxony, our trash sorting regulations seem a little less complicated than yours 😅 We have the "gelbe Tonne" where all plastic waste goes. Then we have a blue one for paper, brown for bio and black for general waste. Glass and "Pfand" are the same.
In my region we are allowed to order a second paper recycling bin if your family is big. And paper bins are free of charge! Maybe it's the same in your "Landkreis"? Just ask for it...
I live in Bavaria too and I think you can definitely put all of your plastic and also tetrapack into the yellow sack/ bin. We only have 2 bins, black for restmüll and green for paper. Biomass either goes into the restmüll or we compost it ourselves in our yard. People hardly go to the wertstoffhof here. Only when they have to deposit things like old paint or chemicals of some sort.
Just put your Bio waste bin every once in a while outside with an open lid. If you leave it for maybe 1 hour, all the maggots will be eaten by the birds. This will reduce the smell.
in our community near cologne in germany, we have 4 bins at the house. The blue bin is for paper and cardboard. The yellow bin is for al kinds plastic packeting, also for tins or tetrapacks etc. The brown bin is for organic and compost trash. ther dark grey bin is for the rest of trash. At the Wertstoffhof we have also bins for Weiss-, Grün- und Braunglas. and all Pfand bottles are going to the Pfandautomat.
one of the pallets looks like a Europalette (they are 120x80cm) often the delivering companies take them back and give you money (just like the Pfand system) the one in the back is just an industrial pallet though and depending on the wood quality it's nice for DIY projects but usually there is a threated wood section at the Wertstoffhof for those. And where I live there are 4 bins at home for most needs: green = paper, yellow = plastics and metals (from packaging), brown = biomass, black/grey = residual waste. For glass there are containers at some places (but only weiß/white and bunt/colored). Batteries (as already mentioned by someone else) at any store that sells them. For Sondermüll (eg. partially filled paint containers) a truck is driving around to collect it at certain dates (depending on the city/town once or multiple times a year) And then there's the Wertstoffhof/Recyclingschleife for bigger amounts and stuff not fitting the other categories.
I am happy to see that your region still has that funny sorting of different kinds of plastic. When I lived in the south of Munich 30 years ago we had to separate PS from PE and PP, and PE-HD (high density) and PE-LD (low density). I almost felt like a chemist. Now we live in Swabia and have the usual yellow bag you mentioned.
Not Germany, but a part of Austria (Vorarlberg, maybe you've heard of it) just to the Southwest of Bavaria. We have Restmüll (residual waste), Plastikmüll (gelbe Tonne/yellow bin), Weißglas, Buntglas, Metall and Biomüll, but at our house we have a Kompost, where we put our vegetable, fruit and even leaves and small branches of trees. We do have Pfand, but that's just for beer an some other alkoholic beverages and I think I've seen it a few weeks ago on a glass milk bottle.
5:37 the apple juice have Pfand. The Traube should have it too. But the Heinz Tomaten Ketchup have no Pfand. All different drinks should have Pfand, water, juice and alcohol. You can see on the bottle the Pfand symbol. The Pfand symbol is the can and bottle with the arrow.
The thinner bottles (except one with juice in it) have a deposit too. Its 0,25€ same as cans. Also when some bottles get rejected it might be because they dont sell this one there (especially with glass bottles). But you can basically check it out when you buy it. If it has a deposit on it you will get charged it when you buy it.
Rechargeable batteries are great! I got fed up with going through pack after pack and then having to recycle them. Switched to rechargeable ones and am super happy with it.
once upon a time i started using rechargeables, but mostly used them for tv remote, computer mouse etc, and then had to recharge them at least once per month and they often (in less than a year) got bad (dripping liquid, lost max charge, etc). after returning to normal batteries *for those purposes* i only need new batteries every 1-3 years, much cheaper and less waste. rechargeables can still be very useful for use in mobile handsets of phones, game controlers, and everything else that either automatically recharges them or uses lots of power (eg which would need new batteries every day or week). for game controllers and similar, people should also think about whether the mobility is worth it or whether to use a wired one instead (if possible). i also found that batteries that no longer work in one (eg in my remote control that needs the highest voltage; btw: rechargeables usually have lower voltage or an earlier drop in voltage and thus require this frequent charging) can still work for a few weeks or even months in others (eg in my mouse), and thus i cycled them from one to the next when the most critical one needed new ones :-) but currently i am using a rechargeable trackball (once every 2-3 months, via usb) ...
@@farcuf where possible and useful: yes ... but there are many applications where it doesn't make sense and then it's not only inconvenient but also causes more costs and more special resources and more pollution than using batteries (or cables), and then it is a clear NO.
@@Anson_AKB rechargeable batteries are great for things where you need to change a normal battery all the time because the device gets a lot of use. Rechargeable batteries are not good for things that discharge very slowly: remote controls, wall clocks or devices you only use very occasionally. Rechargeable batteries will die very quickly in those use cases and create hazardous waste. A normal non rechargeable zinc carbon battery is actually pretty safe to put in the normal garbage but has metals that can be made use of during recycling.
There is even more for the Werkstoffhof. There might be Grünschnitt (vegetation), problem stuff (Oil, acids, paint...), electric stuff from TV to cables. CDs. Sometimes there are containers for wood from furniture and metal (iron and other).
I live in a small town near Munich and we had your system until a few years ago. Since then we just have a yellow bin for all "Wertstoffe", also 3 other bins: Bio, Altpapier and Restmüll. So I bring only glas to the Wertstoffhof (and grass after mowing. Where do you put the grass in the US???)
When we lived in Florida we had curb pick up once a week for yard trash, such as tree limbs, grass clippings, etc. Now we live in Berlin, have no yard to maintain and don’t miss it the slightest bit.
Ok, the special trash for liquid containers like Tetra is very unique. In all places I have lived in Germany (NRW, Hessen, Bayern, Berlin) the trash was the same: Restmüll, gelber Sack, different glas containers and paper. Other ideas like Bio trash for food and stuff and an orange bin for Sperrmüll (furniture etc.) didn't work out in the end and for various reasons.
In Germany, you give the postman a big tip at Christmas. So maybe it would be nice if you give him a tip (like 20€) cause of all the headache you were causing ;)
Also non Pfand plastic bottles, the cap and teh bottle are made of different material, they companies that do the recycling are quite happy when they come separated from each other, even if they get dumped in the same container. So for those who want more of the plastic to be recycled this little extra efford of unscrweing and removing the colored plastic parts might help :)
Welcome to Germany! :-) As a german, i like those videos, because it let me see all that "normal" stuff from a different angle! :-) And so i have some extra informations, about saving the environment for you, that normally no one tells you. So lets start with the "Restmüll": It is not difficult at all: When you can burn it, and it will become ash afterwards, and wont burn with massive toxic smoke (batteries for example or electronic stuff) you can throw it into the restmüll. So if you have some really dirty plastic stuff, and you dont want to wash it. Throw it into the restmüll if you want, unless it will burn. In germany restmüll normally will get burned, and not stored in landfills. And it will generate electricity or "Fernwärme". And now something really interesting: we are so effective in recycling and Mülltrennung, that the Restmüll has so less energy in it, that it wont burn byitself any more. So what do you have to do, to burn that stuff? Heat it up with gas! Sounds weird. It is. So if you put some high-energy-plastic or some paper to the restmüll, they wont have to use that much gas. Crazy, right? So in conclusion: separating the waste is great. But you do not have to be more exact than necessary. The plastic waste you sort at home, will be sorted again, and a lot of it will be put to the restmüll anyway. If xou buy cheese or salami for example, they come normally in a plastic-thing with a plastic foil on top. The "hard"thing can be recycled, the foil don't! So foil goes into Restmüll, the other part into the "Gelbe Sack" or "Gelbe Tonne". And here is the tricky part: If you do not separate the foil from the other part, BOTH will end up in the Restmüll. Because the machines can sort plastic, but not separate it. And when i think of the "sorting machines", there is another problem: Black Plastic. The Machines detect the type of plastic with light-based sensors. If the plastic is black, they can not detect it, and...you guessed it...it will end up in the restmüll anyway. So if you can, try to avoid buying things in black plastic. Best way for the environment is, to not generate waste. Stay away from the "Einwegpfandflaschen" (the flimsy ones), they will get shredded and replaced by new produced bootles. "Mehrwegpfand" (Those more stable bottles that come in Kisten) will get washed and reused. Much better for the environment. What you should NEVER do: Put your Biomüll into plastic-trash-bags and put it into the Biomüll. It cant be filtered out, and Biomüll will become "Blumenerde" after the recycling. And there is already enough microplastic in it. But as i said...if it will burn, you can throw it into the restmüll. And when you think about the stored energy...dont throw very very wet things away. Another thing is "Speisöl" from the "Friteuse". It has to be putted into the restmüll! Do not just wash it away! It is very difficult to clean the water afterwards. Washing the dishes and pans is no problem. Some liters of Speiseöl are. Or maybe you use "dry showersoap" intstead of shower-gel. It is mostly water anyway. So you save energy for the transport (its more heavy, uses more space). And "soap" normally comes in paper (Pappe). So no showering-gel-bottles have to be produced for you anymore. Drinkable water is another weird thing: Everybody tells you, you have to save water! "Dont use it! Save it!" But thats just one part of the story. We germans are "Weltmeister im Sparen" and so, we did, what was told us. And now, we are using not enough water to keep the canalisation clean by itself, because there is not enough water to wash all that dirt away. And so the guys from the "Stadtwerke" have to wash the canalisation...And they use...Water! Crazy, right? And for that extra work, the costs for water are rising of course. And we pay the water by cubicmeters/per 1000l... If just the costs were rising while using the same amount of water, it will be a little more expensive. But using less at the same time will push the costs "per cubicmeter" a lot. Its mathematics. And because water becomes more and more expensive, most people try to even save more water, what i can understand, its not theyr fault, because nearly nobody tolds you about the cleaning-problem. What you really should save is WARM water. Heating up water costs a lot of energy. So it is much better for the environment (CO2 wise), if you shower 1degree colder and shorter, than pressing the "Wasserspartaste" on the toilet as fast as possible. The Water out of the wall in germany is really good and controlled with german "Genauigkeit". Often and in many regions, the water is better than the one you can buy in bottles. So, do yourself a favour and do not buy water in bottles. If you like sparkling water, you can get some of those "sodamakers". It will save you time and money. And no Diesel-Truck has to drive across the land just to bring you water, that already comes out of your wall. Greetings from the north and the baltic sea!
The yellow bins are located in city and towns which have excess to big recycling facilities. They have the machines to sort them out on a better scale. Futhermore in most cities there are hughe recycling containers for glas and cardboard for the public use. Most of them are in walking range and you do not always need to go to the werkstoffhof.
Kevin yes Wertstoffhöfe ususlly take wood of all sorts. The pallets sometimes have Pfand on it as well. By the way due to the recycling I usually need to have emptied our restmülltonne only twice a year! In our Abfallzweckverband Every additional emptying costs extra, so you should check that if you really want to have it emptied every 2nd week. There is really rarley stuff which goes in there.
This should be the test immigrants have to pass in order to receive citizenship. This video was so much fun to watch! After a few minutes I was wondering: did you ever dream of this? Like a nightmare, in which you were surrounded by hundreds of bins and you didn't find the right one? :D You are unbelievably busy and enthusiastic and ambitious to learn this!
I guess in most of the bigger towns there aren't so much different bins available because of lack of space. We have in our "Hinterhof" just enough space for paper, plastic, food waste and the Restmüll. And these are all small bins. So I guess it not only depends on the landlords on how much they want to spend on providing bins, it's even about having enough space for that whole recycling game. Great video! Thank you for explaining all of that :)
Never seen so many ways of recycling plastic :O I live in another Bundesland in Germany and I guess recycling is just different (=easier) here than it is in Bavaria. So it differs per Bundesland.
Nein, nicht das Bundesland entscheidet, sondern der Stadt-/Landkreis. Es gibt auch in Bayern Kreise mit gelbem Sack oder gelber Tonne, und auch in anderen Bundesländern Kreise, die nicht das DSD beauftragt haben.
Hi Sara and Kevin, Looks like you've gotten quite the education when it comes to German recycling. 🤯 Here im Kreis Pinneberg (near Hamburg) it feels a little bit more relaxed than your recycling system in Bayern. We basically have 3-4 bins for "Restabfall", "Gelber Sack", "Altpapier" and "Bio". Glas can be thrown away at the "Altglascontainer" and that's it. No need to drive to a Wertstoffhof, everything except glas gets collected from your house. Every bin will be emptied every 2 or 4 weeks, depending on your needs and size of your bin. If you grow up with this system, it's not really something you think about, but I imagine coming from the US, it's quite an experience.
Yes that’s so true - when you grow up this way, it’s just how you live your daily life, no big deal. To us, it’s like a whole other new lifestyle! Good to know it’s easier up in Kreis Pinneberg.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife the good part is that you become aware of what happens to the environment if people throw everything together in one garbage container.
The detailed concept of recycling is different at any "Landkreis" (a small region containing a handful cities with its own small parliament and a political leader). Sometimes, (mainly in bigger cities), it is directly organized by a municipal company, most smaller regions use a private company. The majority of regions do have the "Gelber Sack" (yellow bag) where you put all package trash (without rests of food) besides glass and which is fetched from home without a fee. But for example Munich creates its Fernwärme (District heating) with big "Müllverbrennungsanlagen" (Waste incineration plants) and they need the plastics package trash in the "Restmüll" (main trash), otherwise they have to put heating oil into the fire. There is often not only a "Wertstoffhof", there are also local trash containers, often only 100 meters away from your home. At my home, I will find there three glass containers, and (that's new) a combinated plastics and tinplate/alu container (which is again separated in the plant) and a container for old clothes. So I only need to go to the Wertstoffhof every 3 months. In Germany, you have only pay for the "Restmüll" - the trash which cannot be separated. So the trash fees can be low, for example I pay 120 EUR (150 US-$) per year in Munich. The "Restmüll" is cleared every 2 weeks. You can also book a clearing every week which doubles the fee, and you can choose the size of the "Restmüll" garbage can.
As an American who's been recycling since my first came home from Kindergarten and asked why we weren't recycling, wow!! So wish the USA took recycling as seriously and as enthusiastically!!!
Thanks Carolyn! Sara talks about how she came home from kindergarten after learning to turn the water off while brushing teeth, and was horrified that her family members left the water on! Funny how experiences like that stick with you for so long.
@@kevinmcfall5285 In the early 1980s we were taught in Germany how to save energy (and resources) with the help of a big campaign started by the federal departement for economic. Most sucessful was an oval sticker in national colors saying "I am energysaver" which one could see on every second car. Just google "ich bin energiesparer". Memories like you've mentioned... 😊
Umm, okay, the name McFall might not be totally uncommon, but... errr, just out of curiosity, are you, Carolyn, and you, Kevin, related somehow? Sorry if that was rude or too private.
@@kevinmcfall5285 and the funny thing is in many places Germans save so much water that the water pipes need to get flushed with water from time to time. So Please. DO NOT SAVE WATER in GERMANY. We have enough water here.. BUT DO IT in Southern Europe or in any country which is dry.
People have probably already mentioned this but compost needs to be layered. You do a layer Brown leaves on the bottom then a layer of green plant life, then another layer of green topped by brown and then you can put in your then you can put in your compostable materials in an even layer but you need to cover it and not leave it open to the air
19:05 I have a little tip for you, about the Tetra-packs. When their empty, remove the cap first. Now you should squeeze them on the the already folded lines to get the majority of the air out. I might do a video by my own, if this is not 100% clear. Still have it squeezed, put now the cap back on it, and the vacuum will hold it in this flat folded status. You can now store much more of this packages, in your bin as before :)
I live in Switzerland and we often use rechargeable batteries (NiMH Akkumulator) for the X-Box controlers, mice, keyboards, remotes, clocks and so on. Avoids waste, an safes a ton of money over time. Nowadays with LSD Nihms they don't discharge much over time. So you can charge a bunch of them and use it like normal batteries.
Wow, I`m really impressed. In case your job is not working out for you, you could start a career anytime at a "Werkstoffhof". You are probably the only person in Germany who figured out how the trash seperation is done 100% correctly. I had no idear... Were I live, we have the "Gelbe Sack". Such a relife.
In Dutch "Kiste", pronounced and spelled the same as in German, is also coffin. The German "Kiste" is called "doze" over there which sounds like the German "Dose" (tin). While "Dose" is called "blikje". So German and Dutch is in this case really confusing.
you probably mean doos in stead of doze (dozen is plural), but in the case of a plastic case, I'd probably use bak in stead. Then again, I'm Belgian, we speak Dutch like the Austrians speak German ;)
As a permaculturist, I would suggest you keep a bin of woodchips or dead leaves or pine needles next to your compost. Everytime you put the kitchen scraps in the bin, cover it with some of your carbon. Hopefully you are allowed. But that protects the compost from flies and helps it break down instead of rot. Not sure if carbon is allowed in the bin though. I sure hope so! I will be moving to the Landsberg am Lech area next month and I guess I’ll find out!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Sorry, I messed it up, it is called Grüner Punkt, it is on nearly every package you buy in the supermarkt. This items you can put in the Gelber Sack, basically you can put every item out of plastic, tinplate, aluminium, styrofoam and beverage/milk carton in the Gelber Sack. You must have this in Bavaria too. You dont have to bring it all to the Werkstoffhof.
Usually you can put the elastic plastic, thin cans, milk containers etc into the gelbe Tonne / gelber Sack as well. Usually nobody has to go to the Recycling center except he has a lot of stufd to get rid off... Glas containers are at multiple other locations and batteries you can return in the supermarket as well.
and when you go to your first german christmas market (hoppefully at the end of this year) and drink something there (which is a must) then you will get to know another system of Pfand for the mugs.
@@kevinmcfall5285 You will find such a deposit system (or "bring your own mug) on all places where beverages are sold in the public. Since less than two weeks the commercial use of single-use plastic mugs is no more allowed in the European Community. www.tagesschau.de/inland/gesellschaft/verpackung-faq-101.html
We’re very similar in our little corner of Bayern. Our Recyclinghof also has a Grüngut container for lawn clippings and other yard-oriented cuttings. We also have bins for large metal items, small electrical appliances, and Bauschutt which is any stone or cement building type materials (if you’re not renovating your Haus then it’s really only relevant when you break a dish or plate). We have to drive one town away for large appliances or old wood and such when that is needed.
Thank you for the detailed explanation. I've been looking for an explanation of the German system. Your video is so good that you could sell it. I think many people will ask for your permission to rebroadcast the video. I wish people in the U.S. were more interested in proper recycling.
@@Alexander-dt2eq The Bavarian system that Kevin McFall showed us IS nightmarish, but is a necessary intermediate step as Germany and the rest of the world work toward better technologies of packaging and other materials. --Plastic is fantastically useful, but manufacturers need to coordinate and reduce the types that are produced. Yes: "Keep it simple".
@@edm9704 its not the bavarian system. Every small district has their own setup. you go 1km in bavaria its different, but then you go 500km and you find the same system :) Basic thing is seperate PAPER/PLASTIC+METAL/BIO/GLASS and REST. It can be simple and for most parts of Germany its down to that 4-5 categories. Do not get a wrong picture! This video is not what its like in Germany for the ordinary person. Its funny to watch though
Bio degratable bags help alot to keep the bin clean, but I don't know if Germany sells them. A cllean container reduces magots significantly. If it is dirty clean it thoroughly. Put something under the lid like a piece of wood so you can ventilate the bin. If you can find it in your garden or neighbourhood tie a piece of hedera or lavenderblooms on the lid and hang them inside the bin or put some mothballs in a old pantyhose and tie it on the lid hang it inside the bin. When all this fails and you still got magots. Put your bin out in the open in the morning leave the lid completly open and give the birds a feast.
I think that 20 categories is really the optimum. Many people where I live only do the following categories: Yellow Bin (Plastic; Packaging made from Aluminium, Styrofoam and Weißblech; Mixed Packaging) Green Bin (Paper) Brown Bin (Organic Waste) Grey Bin (Restmüll) Pfandflaschen & Bierkisten (Can be returned at almost any grocery store) Glass bottles without Pfand (Containers found every 500 or so meters in most towns; Seperated by white, green and brown color) Batteries (Many grocery stores have bins for them behind the checkout area) Sondermüll (Mostly Electronic Waste) (Brought to a Werkstoffhof) Sperrmüll (for any non-electrical waste that is too large for bins and/or doesn't fit into the other categories) (This is collected once every few months, though you have to register in advance that you want them to pick up your Sperrmüll)
Super funny and great knowledge! Every german I know loves to drive to the Werkstoffhof on the weekend. Somehow there is a great sense of comradery there. (btw: a great place to meet germans casually.) - I can't wait for part two: "How to recycle electrical appliances".
Love the shout out to the legend NALF! ;) great job and really enjoying your videos. As a German I can say that your family is doing a great job overall! Good to have folks like you here!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Get it from DM: Dein Bestes Öko-Klumpstreu. It's made of very small wood chips and costs €3,95 for 10 liters. The one you can buy at the pet shop is called Cat's Best and is more expensive.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife also you can use sawdust, leaves, gras and bushes from the garden when you cut them and some of the paper egg boxes are also no problem. It works like a sponge and soak up the moisture and smell. In your region Traunstein all Bio-Müll goes to a biogas plant for make energy and fertilizer. For the smell and maggots/flies use vinegar water. 1Liter "Essig-Essenz 80%" cost maybe €10. It's enough for 10-20 liter vinegar water or the next 2-3 years. Just put the vinegar water in a old spray bottle and spray it sometimes over your Biomüll. When the vinegar smell is to strong to you put some peppermint or lavender oil in it. This 3 smells this typ of flies hate. Lavender is the best natural insects stopp, only real bees and butterflies like lavender. Also lavender is a easy and good looking garden plant.
Did you guys see how many different categories we have to sort our trash here in Southern Bavaria? We have been told it's different in other parts of Germany. Also, it must be noted that we live in a very small town, so that changes the recycling resources we have here. So please make sure to tell us what it's like in your town/Kreis/Bundesland so we can get the complete picture of what it's like here in Germany!
Same. I do think that in Germany the children are teaching the elder generation by thinking green. And I am proud of these green warriors 👍👍👍
@@helfgott1 yes that’s so awesome! Our kids are learning, too.
Here in Bremen / state of Bremen there are yellow bags. Everything that is recycled can go into it. It is sorted by the company. But we pay fees for this. The bags are picked up every 2 weeks. I try to use plastic as little as possible. Nets for unpacked vegetables save a lot. Instead of Tetrapack there are now cardboard milk cartons. They are disposed of in the paper.
If you want to reduce the ammount of plastic trash, try to fiind shops called "Nimm's Lose" or packaging free shops. You can bring your own containers to fill them up with flour, pasta, Rice, nuts, cereals etc. We have one in Rosenheim and when you come up to us, I show it to youo. Btw, the way of recycling differs from district to district. We in Rosenheim have the containers all over the place for the different glass, paper, compost and everything plastic and tin cans. If you buy a lot of water, lemonade or juices, try to find a Getränkemarkt and get everything from there. You buy everything in their boxes (like the bierkiste) and you bring everything back, the boxes are much easier to store and you don't have the hassle of bringing everything to the store to check if the machine takes it. Composting or biomass are two different things. Biomass is every food that can not be composted, like cooked food or tea bags, etc. That stuff is used to make energy. Everything that does not compost in 4 weeks goes into the bio mass, with the exception of the biodegradable packing peanuts. I had a box of biodegradable (compostable) packing peanuts and was not sure if those can be tossed into the compost and called our Inviroment office in the city hall and they told me that those go into the normal trash. Our system can be complicated but you get used to it eventually. If your paper bin is full before they come to collect it, take a big cardbord box for the rest and put it beside the bin on collection day, they will pick it up tooas long as everything is cut down and pressed flat.
Well, for us in BW (Karlsruhe) it is usually much easier. Although that often differs from city to city or municipality always something, but so complicated I have not yet experienced.
Even at the recycling center with us it is not so cumbersome!
You will get the award for the best recycler of 2021 and a german citizenship on top ... :-)
🤣🤣🚛🚛 so awesome!
With those recycling skills you could get the Austrian citizenship as well. 😉
We have the same categories at our Altstoffsammelzentrum, but we are going to get a yellow bag in 2022.
Where you live, that kind of plastic recycling is unique, even for Germany. Most places in Germany have a yellow bin or yellow garbage bag for all the plastic and metal cans. You only drive to the recycling center / wertstoffhof, if you have way more, then you can throw away the normal way.
Like the paper - we can simply place additional paper next to our paper bin when it gets taken away
I live in Leipzig so you can even throw small electronics like a broken hair dryer into the Gelbe Tonne. They just have a different system here and call it Gelbe Tonne +.
Bayern macht es - wie so oft - sehr viel besser als alle anderen Bundesländer!
Es lebe der Freistaat, es leben das föderale System, es lebe unser vorbildliches, liebenswertes Deutschland, das seit vielen Jahren mit großem Abstand beliebteste Land der Welt!
@@Rainerjgs Bayern ist für mich Abfall.
Good point it generally differed locally. But things like Pfand and gelbe Tonne or gelber Sack (DSD Produkte) are standard in whole Germany. Just well west people call it gelber Sack or gelbe Tonne and some may use different Colours/ Tonnen
They're not standard here in Bavaria and I'm very glad. I often see cities littered with the yellow sacks everywhere. It looks terrible.
And for batteries: every store that sells batteries HAS to take back old batteries! It’s mostly small green containers at the checkout.
Ah so good to know!
also i would recommend buying a battery recharger and only buy rechargable batteries (Akkus) so you have no more gargabe from old batteries and save money. Makes especialy sense in a big family
Also you forgot ANOTHER category: the donation bins for used clothes, shoes, bedclothes and used glasses in particular reading glasses.
But check before, many places organize children clothes swap fairs, maybe there is one in your place or close by
I agree with TheIncredible1984! Even more, buy a solar battery charger and a battery charge tester, and put the kids to do the charging job!
they will love it! (if they do not charge, then they cannot play...)
Another question, if you take magazines to the AltPapier (like Der Spiegel or TV guide or similar things) do you take out the staples?
If not you should do it, and put the staples on the metal container. Ordnung über alles!!!
And remember the yogurt metal lid to one container and the yogurt plastic to another.
In East Germany the recycling was even more intense, even the hair cuts from the Frisseurs had to be recycled.
And there was a joke: By law, every enterprise had to have a recycling plan, but every year one enterprise always got a penalty fee for not doing so: the toilet paper combine.
But I am sure that the Germans will find a way to do so.
@@formerlyinpragur4736 There are also organisations which take old used stuff (clothes, but also games, books, and whatever else people might need) and sell them in special charity shops where only low income people are allowed to shop.
I wish they had that in America!
Don't worry, there's hardly a German who does everything a 100% right. Just try your best. E.g. my house does not have a Biotonne, so this goes into Restmüll.
In my hometown it is even prohibited by regulation (with fine) to put organic waste into the Restmülltonne. So, it not even depends on states, but also by county/city.
Herr Wachtmeister, ja es war dieser Kommentar bitte.
It doesn't have a Biotonne? Oof.
On the other hand, people at our place still dump small *plastic bags* filled with biological waste in there from time to time even though it specifically states no bag of any kind should be in there. Which results in extra costs for the community.
thanks for the shoutout guys! you're well on your way to becoming recycling masters!
WTF? I live in northern Germany and we only have bins for paper (blue), "der grüne Punkt" (mostly all kind of packaging) (yellow), organic stuff (brown), residual waste (grey or black), glas and the deposite machines in the stores. The fruit containers, plastic packaging, tetra packs ... we dispose it all in one bin (the yellow one).
We only go to the recycling center if we have larger items such as bulky waste or garden waste. But bulky waste can also be picked up from home free of charge.
I know! It is much harder for is here.
I think Bavaria has to do everything a little.. Extra^^
Ja, in Berlin auch so.
The rules are made by the Landkreis. They differ very strongly. In Böblingen you can bring in your trash to the Wertstoffhof and storting is an absolutly nightmare. It is absolutly insane. In Karlsruhe you are not supposed to bring it in. The yellow bin is supposed to be used. And in Ludwigsburg they only differ in the form like flat, rolls and Kubes. The real sorting is done by machines there.
Same here.
About the green and brown glass: If you are unsure put it in the green container since green glass can be recycled from non-pure Altglas. Brown glass needs to be relatively pure brown glass in order to be recyclable into new brown glassware. This also means that other colours like blue glass goes into the green container.
Cool, didn't know that. This drives me always craczy, also... I have a red-green-sight weakness ... -_-
That’s interesting because here in the U.K. we are told to put any coloured glass we are unsure about into the brown glass container. Also if the clear or green glass containers are full you can put everything in with the brown glass.
Ok, thanks for the tip! I have had some blue glass too.
Green and brown glass has his colour fron iron oxid. So it s relative easy to turn the colour by add or reduce the iron (Fe2/Fe3).
Clear glass has non of it so it s importend to be sepetated.
I learned that the other way around, to put anything one isn't sure about into the brown glass container.
To be honest, i am German and i didn't even know that much about recycling and Trash in Germany. You are so awsome in trying to do everything right.
I visited Germany two years ago and everything there made sense. The culture is much more structured and obeyed rules more respectively than the US, and I loved it. I would love to expat there someday.
Each to their own i guess. I know americans who saw the same behavior as literal slavery. I don`t know. Following at least some guidelines that benefit all is called being "not an asshole" i would say. Sometimes american behavior for me is really strange, although iam part american and lived there for a year.
Wow. This is what i call fully germanized. You should get an Award for your efforts. If we all would recycle like this the world would be a nicer place.
I never thought I'd enjoy 24 minutes of recycling explained as much as I did this one.
Crazy, eh?!?
The way Kevin says it all with a smile and a giggle makes it better!
Also, wir dürfen keine Fleischreste in die Biotonne entsorgen!!!
A typical german word: "Entsorgen" which means disposal but literally translates to "getting rid of worry". So it is satisfying to take a tour to the Wertstoffhof, because you have to worry less afterwards.
What a cool literal translation for disposal!
I'm German and I've never thought about it that way. 😅👍
That's actually what "entsorgen" originally meant, but it went out of use until it was "reinvented" as the opposite of "besorgen" (getting something).
Correct. And at the beginning "entsorgen" was used for dangerous disposal like poison or radioactive stuff. That's why the "getting rid of worry" or maybe "getting rid of responsability" makes sense.
@@TrueCyprien "Besorgen" ist also das Zulegen von Sorgen?! 🙈😂
I laughed so hard when Kevin talked about not knowing if the bottle was brown or green. That's so so German. It's like someone made a mistake and he was supposed to have been born German to begin with. As we'd say "An ihm ist ein Deutscher verloren gegangen".
Yes, he is an engineer. Structured thinking....
7:22 normaly you Drink the Beer put the empty bottles back in the case you brought them in and return the entire case with all bottles in one go
We actually have not bought a case of beer yet. That Kiste was a gift.
@@kevinmcfall5285 It is Kasten, not Kiste. And isn't it crate in English?
@@Henning_Rech What? Where I live you can say Kiste as well. Kiste Bier or Kasten Bier, does not matter.
You can bring that Lammsbräu Kiste back to a shop which also sells them. They should actually take it back. Also the bottles in it. For this special types of bottles and Kisten it is sometimes hard to find a shop that takes it back.
Yes, the store generally has to take back what it sells. So the Lammsbräu bottles probably had a deposit but the store did not take them because they are not sold in that particular store... Yes, I know. Way to be complicated! But that's also why they tell you it is a Pfandflasche at the Alm: If you finish it there and then you can bringt the bottle back inside and they have to take it back and give you back your deposit.
And the worst thing is: after you have figured it all out, if you move to another municipality, the rules might be totally different! So annoying! Many municipalities also publish little booklets in various languages explaining the system in detail, you can probably pick one up somewhere in the Bürgerbüro/Rathaus.
17:09 Landfills are widely a thing of a long gone past in Germany. The 'Restmüll' (residual waste) usually goes to a 'Müllverbrennungsanlage' (waste incineration plant) where it gets incinerated and they make energy out of it. So one reason for sorting all recyclable stuff out is to prevent that precious recyclable material just gets incinerated
they do so much Mülltrennung in germany that one of the Müllverbrennungsanlagen in Munich had to close due to lack of garbage
Same here in Switzerland in regard to waste incineration, and because of that there is a category of stuff that is impossible to incinerate and is neither toxic nor valuable (ceramics and ‘non-food glass’ like broken picture frames, mirrors etc.) called ‘Grubengut’ that actually still goes to landfills and is thus collected separately, not going into ‘Restmüll’. If you were to fed it into an incinerator, it would just add to the ashes which have to be deposited more carefully than the Grubengut and it would reduce the heat generated from waste incineration as well as taking up capacity in the incinerator.
Similar reasons apply to biomass, as the mixture coming from households is often wet which reduces the heat output from incineration. Fermentation and composting can be used to extract energy in the more useful form of biogas, keeping part of the carbon in it in solid form (instead of converting all into CO2 as incineration does) and probably makes waste handling easier by keeping everything that can decay on its own in its own separate feed.
I've just decided you deserve a degree in recycling - and a medal. Congratulations !
🤣🤣🤣 Kevin’s gonna love your comment!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife his New titel: Kevin the Master of Recycling 👑
@@annaluisevogler9175 yes!
Thanks!
It took a while to learn but it isn't so hard now.
Die dünnen Plastikflaschen haben oft 25cent Pfand! Also nicht einfach wegschmeißen!!!
And I think you recycle way more than I do and I’m German 🙈 I have to rethink what I’m doing daily in my kitchen 😉
🤣🤣😜 Too funny! Well now we feel validated in how much work this has been!
Though naturally ideally you don't even buy them at all. Instead you buy your drinks at a proper Getränkehalle in proper "Mehrwegflaschen", meaning you bring back the empty bottles and they get reused. Sadly since the "Einwegpfand" has been introduced, the use of disposable plastic has risen, even though the Mehrweg-System is preferable due to less waste.
Ok! I will be more vigilant for the Pfand plastic bottles!
@@kevinmcfall5285 @Tek Mehrweg plastic (like Coke or Fanta) are in fact 0,15€ and glass (beer etc) 0,08€.
Einweg plastic bottles with the official "Pfandlogo" is where the money is... 🤣
@@kevinmcfall5285 there is that black and white symbol on the plastic bottles that's being recognised by the return machine scanner. If that's on it, the bottle is worth 25ct.
I‘m touched and concerned at the same time… touched because of your interest and efforts and concerned about my life😂 I‘m a 44 year old German mom living in Stuttgart, have also lived in 3 other countries, and have only ever separated into:
1. Gelber Sack (all plastic, packaging etc)
2. Paper/cardboard etc
3. Restmüll (literally the rest of your garbage😄)
4. compost (I only use it for gardening stuff though..leaves etc)
5. glass and batteries… collect those for quite a long time and then just bringthem round the corner
I have never been to a „Wertstoffhof“🙄😃
So don‘t worry too much…doing really great!
Oh really! I think things are quite different here in our town than they are in other places in Germany. In our town, everyone we know goes to the Wertstofhof on a regular basis and we have no Gelber sak and must sort our own plastic.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife It's because she lives in a big city. There they don't seperate so much. But that's not good for the environment. Better to learn the rules like you did. Once you got it, you do it automatically without thinking a lot. Only bothers you in the beginning. XDD
The thinner plastic bottles (single use) should have Pfand on it as well.
You are doing really well explaining all of this!
@flomoe Richtig :-)
Most of the thinner drinks bottles (really only except juice) and also all drinks cans carry Einweg-Pfand, which is 25 cents and therefore quite a bit higher than the Mehrweg-Pfand of 8 or 15 cents. You have been throwing money in the trash. Take them back to a store instead - often you can use the same machine for returning Einweg and Mehrweg bottles.
@@MsJojo1910 wenn das Getränk in der einwegflasche Kohlensäure enthält, so ist die Flasche pfandpflichtig
@@philippschmidt4053 Das stimmt nicht so ganz nur Fruchtsäfte haben keinen Pfand. Eistee z.B. hat auch Pfand oder Stilles Wasser ebenfalls, die Aussage stimmt nicht!!
@@animeterror Diese Diskrepanz gab es schon seit der Einführung des Pflichtpfands, war aber die Grundlage für den Unterschied.
I remember when that "Recyclemania" started in the late 80´s early 90´s and as a Kid which i was at this Time i found it exciting. For now looking backward it was a great Step to keep the Space much cleaner then it was before. Now it feels absolutely normal to recycle my Trash. Sorry my English, it´s been a long Time to speak or write English but your Channel is so good to refresh my Skills.
Beer crates are always multiuse. For crates like yours, you might have to return them where you bought them since others might not accept that special brand.
Breweries are also having a hard time getting their crates back and running shortages due to more and more people building bars, tables, beds, sofas out of beer crates.
Here are some tips for your organic waste problem: You need to clean your organic waste bin from time to time. It also helps if you put a thin layer of straw, sawdust, egg cartons at the bottom.
This helps against maggots: Mix salt, vinegar essence and water and put the mixture in the bin. After the appropriate time, leave the bin to air dry. Maggots come from flies that lay their eggs in the bin. Always close the lid of the bin so that the flies do not get in in the first place.
So-called Biotonnenpulver (bio-bin powder ) is available on the market. It binds odours and is said to be biological. (no experience with that)
By the way, I live in Oberbayern, too. But our recycling is much much easier. For example, you can put the TetraPaks, cans, caps, tubes and all sorts of plastic in one bag or container.😁
That was definitely a masterclass in recycology. Very well done, Kevin. ;)
Tip for your bio trash can: wash it after it is emptied next time with Water, until it is clean. Then take a piece of wood and lay it under the Deckel to keep it open, so air can go into it. It will smell less. My grandpa does it his life long and it works perfectly.
In some citys in summer biotrash ist emptied every week without extra cost.
Or you can buy Biotonnenpulver and put on the top every time you throw away Biomüll. During winter it's not necessary, but in summer helps a lot.
Take a KÄRCHER :-)
Yes airing it is the way to go, flies/ maggots don’t like bright and I guess “fresh” spaces to live in
My mother put a net between the trash can and the top against insects. Don't know if it works ?
@@reinhard8053 many Insects have their eggs in the waste, before you even buy the fruits...so I think it would keep some Insects in and those, whitch don't have teir eggs in the waste out.. but I don't think it helps against the smell,.because the smell comes from rotting compost...
Despite all the hassle, Kevin still looked and sounded excited. ;)
I always try to have a good attitude!
@@kevinmcfall5285 👍😂
Fun fact: "Kiste" could be used for the word "coffin" in a funny or slangy way.
It can also be a slang word for your behind, your PoPo
That is funny it can mean coffin too!
..und auch "Zyste" hat dieselbe Etymologie.
@@kevinmcfall5285 Plus also bed. „in die Kiste steigen“ - go to bed to usually have sex. „in die Kiste fahren“ - end up in a coffin.
In former times the carpenters produced coffins and Kisten and wardrobes. It's all the same stuff. Therefore they used the same word for all this things, too.
Back in the nineties, my German mother-in-law used to cut out the plastic windows from envelopes and separate paper tags and staples from the tea bags. A fun way to spend your retirement, I used to think. German recycling zeal goes way back.
Kevin if you have your first bottle made of blue glass - please make a video how you try to figure out where to put it in in the Werkstoffhof.
Btw. As a german who speaks Swedish let me explain: A kista and a Kiste are no false friends. The main meaning of "Kiste" is a wooden box. You can also say "er liegt in der Kiste" (He lies in the box) to say something like "He lies 6 feet under".
And even the Swedish box låda is related to many words like the German Schublade or the english "to load"
Not all more flexible plastic bottles go into the garbage... those with the Mehrwegflaschen-symbol also get returned to the store (Symbol with a can, a bottle and a curved arrow)
Ok, I will keep an eye out for that!
@@kevinmcfall5285 Here's a link...pls look at the two different logos at the end of the article...
www.mehrweg-mach-mit.de/was-ist-mehrweg/
@@hovawartfreunde4599 I didnt´t want to confuse them with german Verschachtelungswörtern, so that they do not fall into the Verschachtelungswortkonfusionsverzweiflungsfalle.
@@hovawartfreunde4599 Ausserdem, netter Name! Ein (leider verstorbener) Freund der Familie hatte auch einen Hovawart, und ich hab sie immer wieder bei mir zum dogsitting gehabt, zuletzt für 4 Monate, bevor sie eine neue, tolle Familie gefunden hat. Super Hunderasse, ich vermisse sie manchmal wirklich!
11:40 if in doubt if a bottle is green, drop it into brown glass.
The order of reusability is white -> green -> brown glass. If white glass gets contaminated with green, the whole batch is processed to green and same is for brown glass if green gets too contaminated
15:50 the bio mass is dumped into bio domes to rotten it and harvest bio gas which is methane
against the Smell: Keep the Biotonne clean and as dry as possible. The paper bags are a great start, but you can also put eggshels and paper towels down at the bottom
or organic cat litter that is compostable. but if you have a garden, then just do a compost.
Yes..you can look online and the recycle department have tips how to deal with your organic bin... Infact sometimes the trash men will leave you an information note. They did that for me once because in winter when it gets really cold the organics freeze and then do not empty out.. The trash men left me an information sheet which said to put some cardboard at the bottom of the bin.. This soaks up any liquid and stops the organics freezing to the bottom, so it will still empty when they tip it out even at - 10c.
I always put cardboard in the bottom of my organic bin now (I cut down cardboard boxes to fit the bottom of the bin), even in summer... This also helps against strong smells!
Also keep the bin in the shade. A heavy brick on the lid also makes it more difficult for the flies to get under the lid.. Which will reduce flies and therefore maggots.
Most sodas and waters purchased in the bendable plastic bottles are to be returned to the grocery store for Pfand. Exempt are usually fruit juices purchased in the same bottles
You only have to bring bottles and special trash to the Wertstoffhof, Tetrapak and mixed household trash is "grüner Punkt" that you put into the "Gelber Sack"! ;)
We don’t have a Gelber Sack here! Crazy, right?!
hi we use "myTonni Bio- und Mülltonnenstreu" for our Bio-Tonne. can be found on amazon or maybe your local Hardwarestore
Hallo there are different rules in every Kreis (County). We habe yellow bags for all Plastik. A hint for your Biomüll. Use this Material you buy for a Cats toilette. Always put a handful of this over your Biomüll, when you throw something in. You will habe no smell and no maggots. You are doing this very well.
In Lower Saxony we have Bio, Paper, Yellow (the green button) and Rest. But your recycling is very complicated and I‘m sure nearly nobody does it so special and correctly like you.
Excactly the same here in Hessen where I live.
I am trying my best!
Ja, hier in Niedersachsen haben wir auch den gelben Sack. Abholung 1x wöchentlich. Oder natürlich eine gelbe Tonne.
@@ullakroger7866 ich kenne es aus Hannover auch, dass wir blauen Säcke für Papier und die normalen gelbe Säcke hatten. Die schwarzen Säcke wurden reglementiert. Die blauen Papiersäcke kosteten dann was. Aber es wurde öfter geleert. Hier in Ostfriesland wird alles außer Bio nur alle 4 Wochen geleert. Das ist echt selten.
Same in Berlin. Though you forgot to mention the glass which as far as I'm aware is done everywhere.
Hahaha,🤭✌️
it was a lot of fun to watch you explaining all these things.
Kevin is becoming an expert, he did it so well, maybe he can do a TV show for recycling in the future.
You can spend so much time in Germany for recycling, it can be a kind of hobby.
In Germany usually the grocery stores like Rewe or Edeka have boxes for the batteries, mostly at the place where you can pack your stuff into the shopping bags.
In Vienna, Austria we have something for normal garbage and paper near to the house and somewhere on the street are places for glass bottles white and colour, for all the plastics and metal. And the groceries have machines for Pfand bottles.
My parents in Berlin have all the garbage cans near to the house at the side of their court with big cans for plastic, bio, different bottles, paper, metal and normal garbage. With the beer bottles they have to go to the grocery store, mostly Netto.
When I visit my family in Germany
i always ask them the first day's how it goes.
Thanks for sharing that important topic with us. It's always funny to see it with the eye's of someone else. ☺️😜
Kudos, your German is progressing very nicely.
Hamburg: no separation of Gemischtkunststoff / mixed plastic and PE plastic or specific plastic bottles that are not Pfand / deposit.
Either it has the Grüner Punkt / green dot recycling marker, or it has the Pfand / deposit marker of any material.
Any plastic or tin cans, including TetraPaks are usually Grüner Punkt / green dot recycling.
Anything with Grüner Punkt is either dumped into a Gelbe Tonne / yellow trash bin, or a Gelber Sack / yellow bag.
Here in Hamburg you can get two rolls of yellow bags with twenty or so bags each for free from any Wertstoffhof / recycling center.
So most people decide to take the yellow bags.
Pro of the yellow bin: almost always unaffected by wind or weather; larger capacity; can be compacted with recyclable trash for more content; outside, so less smelly.
pro of yellow bag: cheap; small; easy to store until used; can be placed anywhere within the proximity of the street outside your home on collection day, as it is picked up by hand.
Cons yellow bin: one MORE bin outside (either three or four minimum); needs a space next to the street for the trash trucks to collect (in Germany's congested city streets, a real downside); fairly expensive to rent; fairly large space occupied even when empty.
cons yellow bag: smelly once filled, because it is usually stored inside until the day they are collected which is usually once every 14 days; can be blown away during stormy weather even when filled; very flimsy, rips easily thus can't be stuffed full; looks butt ugly when several such bags are stacked at the side of the street; is translucent so people can see what you threw away (only for those anxious of others' opinions).
Glass: if it has the Pfand marker, it can be returned. If it doesn't it belongs into the specific glass color recycling containers (clear, brown, green). If the glass color doesn't exist as a container, it is Restmüll / remaining trash.
Agreed, beer bottles are exceptional cases, but I'd go for 99.9% of the time they are Pfand that should be returned. Your breweries will thank you on their knees in hot summers (that means, not this one 😁), as during the last three hot summers they ran into bottle shortages when people didn't immediately return the empty bottles.
All cased drinks that I know of are ALWAYS Pfand. Buuuuuut, some companies decided to kick the can and make their own Pfandsystem which can ONLY be redeemed at certain stores (usually where you bought them). I have decided to boycott such companies as they make it much more difficult and complex to recycle.
If drinks come in bottles stored in cases, you normaly can return the case with empty bottles in the case as they are scanned for content by the deposit return machine. The machines are usually smart enough to recognize the number of bottles and accurately calculate the Pfand including the case on your reciept.
Batteries: yepp, any location selling batteries is REQUIRED by law to also offer a special container to return batteries. But, obviously, the recycling centers will take back batteries.
It is a pretty lucrative business as batteries contain worthwhile metals that can be fairly easily recycled, but that are pretty harmful to the environment if left to rot and rust.
Pro tip for your kids: get Akkus (rechargable batteries) and a charging station. While more expensive to purchase, in the long run they will easily return the investment over their lifetimes AND it will help the environment.
Styrofoam and other fluffy packaging materials: yepp, those are just huuuuuge volume hogs, and would instantly fill up any yellow bins or bags with virtually no weight. So the recycling centers here have their own dedicated containers where these are stored. But not to the degree you described: is it big or small, and fluffy but light, or large and rigid but light it goes into the packaging container, no differentiation between rigid styrofoam or fluffy packing peanuts.
One exception: there are certain bio-degradable packing peanuts made from corn starch: they can go into the Biotonne or the bio-degradable bin at the Wertstoffhof.
Which brings us to the bio-degradable stuff: basically anything plant based goes in there that can be changed to compost. Either on your own plot of land in a composter, or in the Biotonne where it is collected. Here in Hamburg you are not supposed to add meat or animal products to the Biotonne, as it is known to attract rats, but it may be different in your location. I assume rats are more of a city problem than a rural problem.
No matter what anyone tells you: decomposing organic compounds STINK to high heaven. That is part and parcel of the decomposition process. Ask any chemistry student about it; the components of organic compounds decomposing are absolute stink producers. Gagging is still a fairly tame reaction to some of the smells; projectile vomiting is fairly common. The warmer the weather, the more it happens. Anyone who ever turned over a large compost pile will know what I am talking about.
Unless it is completely vaccuum sealed or stored in a CO2 environment with more than 90% CO2 content, maggots will find a way inside. That is basically a given.
While it is not a nice sight to behold, it is absolutely essential that decomposition happens.
Regarding the Neumarkter Lammsbräu cases and also bottles, I’m pretty sure that they have a deposit, so you shouldn’t bring them to the Wertstoffhof. Generally speaking, the shop where you buy things has to accept those bottles back. I don’t think I ever saw them in the supermarket, I only sold tons of them when I worked in catering and we always collected them and I think a supplier took them back. You can probably get some money back, I would guess 8ct per bottle and 1,50€ for the case, so it‘s probably 2,30€ per case. Btw for regular size beer cases you get 3,10€ which is 1,50€ for the empty case and 8ct per empty bottle (there are 20 of them in it)
Ok, great to know!
I am also really sure because I buy it sometimes - maybe you tried to return it in a shop that doesn't sell it? Neumarktes Lammsbräu is sold basically in every organic grocery store (like Alnatura) all over Germany.
Fun fact: I grew up near Neumarkt, where the beer comes from. It used to be a local brewery, a family business, but they changed to organic beer very early, like in the early 80s, and now it's sold across the country.
A Suggestion for your Biomasse: if you have some space in a corner of your garden: build a Komposthaufen. It is simply a pile for your biomasse where it can decompose slowly. It’s not as nasty as these bins and after a while you have compost soil for your garden and a place for biodiversity. And the best benefit: from a certain point on the pile stops growing. It is pretty common for house owners here to have one.
we have the yellow bin/sack as well, it gets separated of course, but that is done at a recycling factory. Sometimes it may also be simply burned for energy which is not the best way of getting rid of it of course, but at least the burning is controlled and filtered again.
Plastic/Compound materials. Carton/paper. Biowaste. Pfand. Glass/Batteries (separated later on). Mixed trash.
Just 6 kinds of trash and you're pretty well off on recycling already. 7 if you separate paper and carton.
PE stands for polyethylene, there are quite a few other abbreviations you can find on plastic items in Europe if you are interested in chemistry such as PS (polystyrene), PP (polypropylene), PET (polyethylene terephthalate) etc etc
Yes and PE-LD stands for PE-low-density, that's why it's flexible, there is PE-HD too, which is the high-density PE obviously.
But it's hard to recycle plastic, that's why they try to get clean material of just one version in one container to melt it and make new such things.
I occationally do 3D printing (with less than 100g 3D print waste per year! I just print things that I want to keep. When I don't like the looks or the "predicted" function (would it work as it should?) when I design it, then I don't print it ;-) and I have seen quite some differences in the materials and I don't dare to recycle it on my own. It gets unpredictable. So I can imagine how difficult it would be to recycle the household plastic items from grocery shopping...
And that unpredictability is why there often is a downcycling where they make less sophisticated items out of recycled plastic, because there are plastic parts in it that should not have been there.
In NRW the Restmüll wouldn't be brought in a landfill it will be burned in very big ovens at a incineration plant. I think other states will do the same. I don't know of any Landfill here in the Ruhrgebiet. The ashes from the waste burning will be used when repairing or building streets or used making bricks for special use. The exhaust gases from the incineration plant are cleaned in a very sophisticated process and the resulting dust will be made to plaster, so when renovating you'll probably use someones waste.
There was a minor error in dividing the paper.
You normally can only use cardboard or newspaper for recycling. All other "paper" can't be used and will be sorted out. Especially if it's coloured (other than black) that will be a chemical with heavy metals that are poisenous for the environment.
Years ago I learned a little trick: If you burn paper and it burns like paper than it can be recycled. If it burns funny like colourful, making smoke that smells like acid or shrinking like plastic it mostly is special waste that has to be separatley disposed like batteries or laquer colors. I was told to put it in the Restmüll because when incinerated it will be harmless.
Great job, you guys recycle better than anyone I know. Certainly much better than myself^^
🤣🤣 poor Kevin!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife he is doing such a great job!
True
Thanks!
Hi :) .... well its run by Kreis/County - like your friends in the black forest (Baden-Württemberg) I have here in northern Rheinland-Pfalz all plastics to go into the yellow bin(as well as the tetrapaks) , paper in the blue, all glass (which is no Pfand) goes into the collecting container (seperated by colour of course^^) and all the rest goes to the Restmüll. (tin and aluminium going as well into the yellow). And to answer kevins Question: Biomasse is often used to generate energy (by burning, i think?) - but Biomasse from garden(-ing) like cut grass, leaves, wood etc. is fermented to compost, which you can get free as new fertilizer for your own garden.
In Berlin the biomass is used to make biogas and some of the lorries and cars of the garbage-company are run with that biogas or it's used to heat the buildings.
Very cool!
In parts of Upper Franconia as well :)
Lammsbräu bottles (the green beer bottle) are deposit bottles. But Lammsbräu has their unique kind of bottles, so you can return them only in places that sell Lammsbräu. If Edeka sells these bottles and the machine declines to accept them, ring for assistance. The machines sometimes have problems to recognise all kinds of bottles right. If Edeka does not sell Lammsbräu, return it at the store you bought it. The same goes for the Lammsbräu beer case. You can only return it at places that sell it. In general there are no containers for beer or sparkling sodas and Schorles that are deposit free. It is either 25ct plastic bottle/ aluminium can deposit or 8/15ct glass bottle deposit. But shops only must accept bottles of a format that they sell.
Tip to keep the Biotonne clean:
1.Wash it sometimes straight after they empty it sometimes it’s enough just to rinse it out with water.
2. Keep your daily biomass wrapped in old newspapers.
Good luck 😉
Really enjoy your videos👍
Yes, rinsing is a must, especially in the summer you have to take extra care.
If possible, then keep the lid of the trash can open and put the can in a cool place. The decomposition process of the biomass starts immediately and allows warmth and moisture to develop. If the lid remains closed, the moisture stays inside and condenses on the bin shell and lid, keeping the biomass moist and warm. Warm and moist biomass decomposes faster with corresponding smell. Try to keep the biomass cool and dry.
We live in Lower Saxony and we seperate our waste into 6 categories: Altpapier (paper, cardboard etc), Verpackung (packaging from plastic, metal or styropor etc), Kompost (we put it in our composting place in the garden), Restmüll (waste like cooked foodwaste, old cloth that cannot be used again, toothbrushes, paperhandkerchief etc), Altglas (green, brown or white mostly wine-bottles, oilcans, pickeled vegs, jam ect) and Pfandglas (bottles for beverages, mostly glass but also plastic/Mehrweg)
We have three garbage cans: One emtied by the lokal Abfallentsogung the Restmülltonne, the Altpapiertonne and the Verpackungsmülltonne called Gelbe Tonne - both emtied by a private Recycling-company. We only rarely have to bring any waste to the Werkstoffhof. Batteries, light bulbs and corks from wine-bottles can be put in a box in the supermarket. The Altglasscontainer ist to ne found on the parking lot of the supermarket.
It's a challenge at first to find out what to do with your waste in Germany, but this system is a try to reduce waist or at least make the best of it (to recycle it).
And thats why it is called "Wertstoffhof"... because this trash has a value! Wert = Value.
yes, there's money in "them that trash". Several documentary films show how they do it. Unfortunately they barely make any profit, but there's hope that when *everyone* recycles as well as you do, then it will pay off big!
I live in lower saxony, our trash sorting regulations seem a little less complicated than yours 😅
We have the "gelbe Tonne" where all plastic waste goes. Then we have a blue one for paper, brown for bio and black for general waste. Glass and "Pfand" are the same.
In my region we are allowed to order a second paper recycling bin if your family is big. And paper bins are free of charge! Maybe it's the same in your "Landkreis"? Just ask for it...
I live in Bavaria too and I think you can definitely put all of your plastic and also tetrapack into the yellow sack/ bin. We only have 2 bins, black for restmüll and green for paper. Biomass either goes into the restmüll or we compost it ourselves in our yard. People hardly go to the wertstoffhof here. Only when they have to deposit things like old paint or chemicals of some sort.
Just put your Bio waste bin every once in a while outside with an open lid. If you leave it for maybe 1 hour, all the maggots will be eaten by the birds. This will reduce the smell.
Ahhh, cool! We will try that.
Fabulous! Feed the wildlife!
in our community near cologne in germany, we have 4 bins at the house. The blue bin is for paper and cardboard. The yellow bin is for al kinds plastic packeting, also for tins or tetrapacks etc. The brown bin is for organic and compost trash. ther dark grey bin is for the rest of trash. At the Wertstoffhof we have also bins for Weiss-, Grün- und Braunglas. and all Pfand bottles are going to the Pfandautomat.
I never found myself watching a video about trash before but this was surprisingly interesting!! thank you :))
one of the pallets looks like a Europalette (they are 120x80cm) often the delivering companies take them back and give you money (just like the Pfand system) the one in the back is just an industrial pallet though and depending on the wood quality it's nice for DIY projects but usually there is a threated wood section at the Wertstoffhof for those.
And where I live there are 4 bins at home for most needs: green = paper, yellow = plastics and metals (from packaging), brown = biomass, black/grey = residual waste.
For glass there are containers at some places (but only weiß/white and bunt/colored).
Batteries (as already mentioned by someone else) at any store that sells them.
For Sondermüll (eg. partially filled paint containers) a truck is driving around to collect it at certain dates (depending on the city/town once or multiple times a year)
And then there's the Wertstoffhof/Recyclingschleife for bigger amounts and stuff not fitting the other categories.
I am happy to see that your region still has that funny sorting of different kinds of plastic. When I lived in the south of Munich 30 years ago we had to separate PS from PE and PP, and PE-HD (high density) and PE-LD (low density). I almost felt like a chemist. Now we live in Swabia and have the usual yellow bag you mentioned.
Yes! It does make you feel like a chemist!
Not Germany, but a part of Austria (Vorarlberg, maybe you've heard of it) just to the Southwest of Bavaria.
We have Restmüll (residual waste), Plastikmüll (gelbe Tonne/yellow bin), Weißglas, Buntglas, Metall and Biomüll, but at our house we have a Kompost, where we put our vegetable, fruit and even leaves and small branches of trees.
We do have Pfand, but that's just for beer an some other alkoholic beverages and I think I've seen it a few weeks ago on a glass milk bottle.
Germany and Austria do seem to have many similar things, at least from the comments we receive here.
5:37 the apple juice have Pfand. The Traube should have it too. But the Heinz Tomaten Ketchup have no Pfand. All different drinks should have Pfand, water, juice and alcohol. You can see on the bottle the Pfand symbol. The Pfand symbol is the can and bottle with the arrow.
I will look more closely!
Juice should not have pfand, schorle should have.
Hard liquor, sparkling wine and wine usually has no deposit on the bottles. But some wine vendors gladly take back the empty bottles after all
The thinner bottles (except one with juice in it) have a deposit too. Its 0,25€ same as cans. Also when some bottles get rejected it might be because they dont sell this one there (especially with glass bottles). But you can basically check it out when you buy it. If it has a deposit on it you will get charged it when you buy it.
Rechargeable batteries are great! I got fed up with going through pack after pack and then having to recycle them. Switched to rechargeable ones and am super happy with it.
once upon a time i started using rechargeables, but mostly used them for tv remote, computer mouse etc, and then had to recharge them at least once per month and they often (in less than a year) got bad (dripping liquid, lost max charge, etc). after returning to normal batteries *for those purposes* i only need new batteries every 1-3 years, much cheaper and less waste. rechargeables can still be very useful for use in mobile handsets of phones, game controlers, and everything else that either automatically recharges them or uses lots of power (eg which would need new batteries every day or week). for game controllers and similar, people should also think about whether the mobility is worth it or whether to use a wired one instead (if possible).
i also found that batteries that no longer work in one (eg in my remote control that needs the highest voltage; btw: rechargeables usually have lower voltage or an earlier drop in voltage and thus require this frequent charging) can still work for a few weeks or even months in others (eg in my mouse), and thus i cycled them from one to the next when the most critical one needed new ones :-)
but currently i am using a rechargeable trackball (once every 2-3 months, via usb) ...
Rechargeable is def. the way to go!!
@@farcuf where possible and useful: yes ... but there are many applications where it doesn't make sense and then it's not only inconvenient but also causes more costs and more special resources and more pollution than using batteries (or cables), and then it is a clear NO.
@@Anson_AKB rechargeable batteries are great for things where you need to change a normal battery all the time because the device gets a lot of use. Rechargeable batteries are not good for things that discharge very slowly: remote controls, wall clocks or devices you only use very occasionally. Rechargeable batteries will die very quickly in those use cases and create hazardous waste. A normal non rechargeable zinc carbon battery is actually pretty safe to put in the normal garbage but has metals that can be made use of during recycling.
There is even more for the Werkstoffhof. There might be Grünschnitt (vegetation), problem stuff (Oil, acids, paint...), electric stuff from TV to cables. CDs. Sometimes there are containers for wood from furniture and metal (iron and other).
I live in a small town near Munich and we had your system until a few years ago. Since then we just have a yellow bin for all "Wertstoffe", also 3 other bins: Bio, Altpapier and Restmüll. So I bring only glas to the Wertstoffhof (and grass after mowing. Where do you put the grass in the US???)
When we lived in Florida we had curb pick up once a week for yard trash, such as tree limbs, grass clippings, etc. Now we live in Berlin, have no yard to maintain and don’t miss it the slightest bit.
Ok, the special trash for liquid containers like Tetra is very unique. In all places I have lived in Germany (NRW, Hessen, Bayern, Berlin) the trash was the same: Restmüll, gelber Sack, different glas containers and paper. Other ideas like Bio trash for food and stuff and an orange bin for Sperrmüll (furniture etc.) didn't work out in the end and for various reasons.
In Germany, you give the postman a big tip at Christmas. So maybe it would be nice if you give him a tip (like 20€) cause of all the headache you were causing ;)
Yes! We did give him some nice chocolate a few times.
Are you a Postman yourself? 😉😀
Also non Pfand plastic bottles, the cap and teh bottle are made of different material, they companies that do the recycling are quite happy when they come separated from each other, even if they get dumped in the same container. So for those who want more of the plastic to be recycled this little extra efford of unscrweing and removing the colored plastic parts might help :)
Your single use pallets, i would suggest process them to firewood.
Welcome to Germany! :-)
As a german, i like those videos, because it let me see all that "normal" stuff from a different angle! :-)
And so i have some extra informations, about saving the environment for you, that normally no one tells you. So lets start with the "Restmüll": It is not difficult at all: When you can burn it, and it will become ash afterwards, and wont burn with massive toxic smoke (batteries for example or electronic stuff) you can throw it into the restmüll.
So if you have some really dirty plastic stuff, and you dont want to wash it. Throw it into the restmüll if you want, unless it will burn. In germany restmüll normally will get burned, and not stored in landfills. And it will generate electricity or "Fernwärme". And now something really interesting: we are so effective in recycling and Mülltrennung, that the Restmüll has so less energy in it, that it wont burn byitself any more. So what do you have to do, to burn that stuff? Heat it up with gas! Sounds weird. It is. So if you put some high-energy-plastic or some paper to the restmüll, they wont have to use that much gas. Crazy, right? So in conclusion: separating the waste is great. But you do not have to be more exact than necessary. The plastic waste you sort at home, will be sorted again, and a lot of it will be put to the restmüll anyway. If xou buy cheese or salami for example, they come normally in a plastic-thing with a plastic foil on top. The "hard"thing can be recycled, the foil don't!
So foil goes into Restmüll, the other part into the "Gelbe Sack" or "Gelbe Tonne".
And here is the tricky part: If you do not separate the foil from the other part, BOTH will end up in the Restmüll. Because the machines can sort plastic, but not separate it.
And when i think of the "sorting machines", there is another problem: Black Plastic.
The Machines detect the type of plastic with light-based sensors. If the plastic is black, they can not detect it, and...you guessed it...it will end up in the restmüll anyway.
So if you can, try to avoid buying things in black plastic.
Best way for the environment is, to not generate waste. Stay away from the "Einwegpfandflaschen" (the flimsy ones), they will get shredded and replaced by new produced bootles. "Mehrwegpfand" (Those more stable bottles that come in Kisten) will get washed and reused. Much better for the environment.
What you should NEVER do: Put your Biomüll into plastic-trash-bags and put it into the Biomüll. It cant be filtered out, and Biomüll will become "Blumenerde" after the recycling. And there is already enough microplastic in it. But as i said...if it will burn, you can throw it into the restmüll. And when you think about the stored energy...dont throw very very wet things away.
Another thing is "Speisöl" from the "Friteuse". It has to be putted into the restmüll! Do not just wash it away! It is very difficult to clean the water afterwards. Washing the dishes and pans is no problem. Some liters of Speiseöl are.
Or maybe you use "dry showersoap" intstead of shower-gel. It is mostly water anyway. So you save energy for the transport (its more heavy, uses more space). And "soap" normally comes in paper (Pappe). So no showering-gel-bottles have to be produced for you anymore.
Drinkable water is another weird thing: Everybody tells you, you have to save water! "Dont use it! Save it!" But thats just one part of the story. We germans are "Weltmeister im Sparen" and so, we did, what was told us. And now, we are using not enough water to keep the canalisation clean by itself, because there is not enough water to wash all that dirt away. And so the guys from the "Stadtwerke" have to wash the canalisation...And they use...Water! Crazy, right? And for that extra work, the costs for water are rising of course. And we pay the water by cubicmeters/per 1000l... If just the costs were rising while using the same amount of water, it will be a little more expensive. But using less at the same time will push the costs "per cubicmeter" a lot. Its mathematics. And because water becomes more and more expensive, most people try to even save more water, what i can understand, its not theyr fault, because nearly nobody tolds you about the cleaning-problem.
What you really should save is WARM water. Heating up water costs a lot of energy.
So it is much better for the environment (CO2 wise), if you shower 1degree colder and shorter, than pressing the "Wasserspartaste" on the toilet as fast as possible.
The Water out of the wall in germany is really good and controlled with german "Genauigkeit". Often and in many regions, the water is better than the one you can buy in bottles. So, do yourself a favour and do not buy water in bottles. If you like sparkling water, you can get some of those "sodamakers". It will save you time and money. And no Diesel-Truck has to drive across the land just to bring you water, that already comes out of your wall.
Greetings from the north and the baltic sea!
in Schleswig Holstein we have Restmüll, yellow and blue,
Nice, that sounds much easier!
The yellow bins are located in city and towns which have excess to big recycling facilities. They have the machines to sort them out on a better scale. Futhermore in most cities there are hughe recycling containers for glas and cardboard for the public use. Most of them are in walking range and you do not always need to go to the werkstoffhof.
Awesome explained !!! I wish more Country in the World, would do more Recycling.
We do, too! It’s so important!
Kevin yes Wertstoffhöfe ususlly take wood of all sorts. The pallets sometimes have Pfand on it as well. By the way due to the recycling I usually need to have emptied our restmülltonne only twice a year! In our Abfallzweckverband Every additional emptying costs extra, so you should check that if you really want to have it emptied every 2nd week. There is really rarley stuff which goes in there.
But if the Pfandautomat doesn’t take your bottle it doesn’t always mean that you do not get Pfand. Ask the cashier.
I will do that! There were several bottles I thought for sure it should take but it didn't.
@@kevinmcfall5285 ...and always put in the bottom first. But it's written on a sign on the Pfandautomat, I guess.
@@kevinmcfall5285 Always look out for the Pfand sign picture ... or, as someone else mentioned above, the Mehrwegflaschenpfandetikett! :D
This should be the test immigrants have to pass in order to receive citizenship.
This video was so much fun to watch!
After a few minutes I was wondering: did you ever dream of this? Like a nightmare, in which you were surrounded by hundreds of bins and you didn't find the right one? :D
You are unbelievably busy and enthusiastic and ambitious to learn this!
I guess in most of the bigger towns there aren't so much different bins available because of lack of space. We have in our "Hinterhof" just enough space for paper, plastic, food waste and the Restmüll. And these are all small bins. So I guess it not only depends on the landlords on how much they want to spend on providing bins, it's even about having enough space for that whole recycling game.
Great video! Thank you for explaining all of that :)
It's not really up to the landlords to decide anything there, it's a bit just different from municipality to municipality.
Never seen so many ways of recycling plastic :O I live in another Bundesland in Germany and I guess recycling is just different (=easier) here than it is in Bavaria. So it differs per Bundesland.
Nein, nicht das Bundesland entscheidet, sondern der Stadt-/Landkreis. Es gibt auch in Bayern Kreise mit gelbem Sack oder gelber Tonne, und auch in anderen Bundesländern Kreise, die nicht das DSD beauftragt haben.
Hi Sara and Kevin,
Looks like you've gotten quite the education when it comes to German recycling. 🤯
Here im Kreis Pinneberg (near Hamburg) it feels a little bit more relaxed than your recycling system in Bayern. We basically have 3-4 bins for "Restabfall", "Gelber Sack", "Altpapier" and "Bio". Glas can be thrown away at the "Altglascontainer" and that's it. No need to drive to a Wertstoffhof, everything except glas gets collected from your house. Every bin will be emptied every 2 or 4 weeks, depending on your needs and size of your bin. If you grow up with this system, it's not really something you think about, but I imagine coming from the US, it's quite an experience.
Yes that’s so true - when you grow up this way, it’s just how you live your daily life, no big deal. To us, it’s like a whole other new lifestyle! Good to know it’s easier up in Kreis Pinneberg.
And batteries/light bulbs can be taken to most grocerie and drug stores (e.g. DM).
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife the good part is that you become aware of what happens to the environment if people throw everything together in one garbage container.
@@Reboegga @ = Also at ALDI, LIDL, etc.
@@grandmak. yes!!!
The detailed concept of recycling is different at any "Landkreis" (a small region containing a handful cities with its own small parliament and a political leader). Sometimes, (mainly in bigger cities), it is directly organized by a municipal company, most smaller regions use a private company. The majority of regions do have the "Gelber Sack" (yellow bag) where you put all package trash (without rests of food) besides glass and which is fetched from home without a fee. But for example Munich creates its Fernwärme (District heating) with big "Müllverbrennungsanlagen" (Waste incineration plants) and they need the plastics package trash in the "Restmüll" (main trash), otherwise they have to put heating oil into the fire. There is often not only a "Wertstoffhof", there are also local trash containers, often only 100 meters away from your home. At my home, I will find there three glass containers, and (that's new) a combinated plastics and tinplate/alu container (which is again separated in the plant) and a container for old clothes. So I only need to go to the Wertstoffhof every 3 months. In Germany, you have only pay for the "Restmüll" - the trash which cannot be separated. So the trash fees can be low, for example I pay 120 EUR (150 US-$) per year in Munich. The "Restmüll" is cleared every 2 weeks. You can also book a clearing every week which doubles the fee, and you can choose the size of the "Restmüll" garbage can.
As an American who's been recycling since my first came home from Kindergarten and asked why we weren't recycling, wow!! So wish the USA took recycling as seriously and as enthusiastically!!!
Thanks Carolyn! Sara talks about how she came home from kindergarten after learning to turn the water off while brushing teeth, and was horrified that her family members left the water on! Funny how experiences like that stick with you for so long.
@@kevinmcfall5285 In the early 1980s we were taught in Germany how to save energy (and resources) with the help of a big campaign started by the federal departement for economic. Most sucessful was an oval sticker in national colors saying "I am energysaver" which one could see on every second car.
Just google "ich bin energiesparer". Memories like you've mentioned... 😊
Umm, okay, the name McFall might not be totally uncommon, but... errr, just out of curiosity, are you, Carolyn, and you, Kevin, related somehow?
Sorry if that was rude or too private.
@@kevinmcfall5285 and the funny thing is in many places Germans save so much water that the water pipes need to get flushed with water from time to time. So Please. DO NOT SAVE WATER in GERMANY. We have enough water here.. BUT DO IT in Southern Europe or in any country which is dry.
People have probably already mentioned this but compost needs to be layered. You do a layer Brown leaves on the bottom then a layer of green plant life, then another layer of green topped by brown and then you can put in your then you can put in your compostable materials in an even layer but you need to cover it and not leave it open to the air
19:05 I have a little tip for you, about the Tetra-packs. When their empty, remove the cap first. Now you should squeeze them on the the already folded lines to get the majority of the air out. I might do a video by my own, if this is not 100% clear. Still have it squeezed, put now the cap back on it, and the vacuum will hold it in this flat folded status. You can now store much more of this packages, in your bin as before :)
Nice tip!
I live in Switzerland and we often use rechargeable batteries (NiMH Akkumulator) for the X-Box controlers, mice, keyboards, remotes, clocks and so on. Avoids waste, an safes a ton of money over time. Nowadays with LSD Nihms they don't
discharge much over time. So you can charge a bunch of them and use it like normal batteries.
I just through all plastic in the yellow bin.
Nice! Which Bundesland are you in, if I may ask?
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Thüringen.
Me too. I‘m from Rheinland-Pfalz
@@Der_wahre_C17 Hello, fellow Thuringian!
Wow, I`m really impressed.
In case your job is not working out for you, you could start a career anytime at a "Werkstoffhof".
You are probably the only person in Germany who figured out how the trash seperation is done 100% correctly.
I had no idear...
Were I live, we have the "Gelbe Sack". Such a relife.
In Dutch "Kiste", pronounced and spelled the same as in German, is also coffin. The German "Kiste" is called "doze" over there which sounds like the German "Dose" (tin). While "Dose" is called "blikje". So German and Dutch is in this case really confusing.
So cool all those little intricacies!
you probably mean doos in stead of doze (dozen is plural), but in the case of a plastic case, I'd probably use bak in stead. Then again, I'm Belgian, we speak Dutch like the Austrians speak German ;)
As a permaculturist, I would suggest you keep a bin of woodchips or dead leaves or pine needles next to your compost. Everytime you put the kitchen scraps in the bin, cover it with some of your carbon. Hopefully you are allowed. But that protects the compost from flies and helps it break down instead of rot. Not sure if carbon is allowed in the bin though. I sure hope so! I will be moving to the Landsberg am Lech area next month and I guess I’ll find out!
I am puzzled that you dont have Gelber Sack and Gelber Punkt. I thought it were everywhere in Germany.
same
Ah we have heard of this, but don’t have it! Is that for plastics?
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife basically all packaging. So yoghurt containers, tin cans, chip bags, shampoo containers.
so did I .
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Sorry, I messed it up, it is called Grüner Punkt, it is on nearly every package you buy in the supermarkt. This items you can put in the Gelber Sack, basically you can put every item out of plastic, tinplate, aluminium, styrofoam and beverage/milk carton in the Gelber Sack. You must have this in Bavaria too. You dont have to bring it all to the Werkstoffhof.
Usually you can put the elastic plastic, thin cans, milk containers etc into the gelbe Tonne / gelber Sack as well. Usually nobody has to go to the Recycling center except he has a lot of stufd to get rid off... Glas containers are at multiple other locations and batteries you can return in the supermarket as well.
and when you go to your first german christmas market (hoppefully at the end of this year) and drink something there (which is a must) then you will get to know another system of Pfand for the mugs.
"Oh mein Gott, er hat 'ne hat eine Tasse!!"
Pfand on mugs for Glühwein? I definitely am excited for Glühwein!
@@kevinmcfall5285 You will find such a deposit system (or "bring your own mug) on all places where beverages are sold in the public. Since less than two weeks the commercial use of single-use plastic mugs is no more allowed in the European Community.
www.tagesschau.de/inland/gesellschaft/verpackung-faq-101.html
We’re very similar in our little corner of Bayern. Our Recyclinghof also has a Grüngut container for lawn clippings and other yard-oriented cuttings. We also have bins for large metal items, small electrical appliances, and Bauschutt which is any stone or cement building type materials (if you’re not renovating your Haus then it’s really only relevant when you break a dish or plate). We have to drive one town away for large appliances or old wood and such when that is needed.
Thank you for the detailed explanation. I've been looking for an explanation of the German system. Your video is so good that you could sell it. I think many people will ask for your permission to rebroadcast the video. I wish people in the U.S. were more interested in proper recycling.
Thanks, you are so kind!
it was more of a nightmare video :D I think recycling is a good thing, but you have to keep it simple!
@@Alexander-dt2eq The Bavarian system that Kevin McFall showed us IS nightmarish, but is a necessary intermediate step as Germany and the rest of the world work toward better technologies of packaging and other materials.
--Plastic is fantastically useful, but manufacturers need to coordinate and reduce the types that are produced. Yes: "Keep it simple".
@@edm9704 its not the bavarian system. Every small district has their own setup. you go 1km in bavaria its different, but then you go 500km and you find the same system :) Basic thing is seperate PAPER/PLASTIC+METAL/BIO/GLASS and REST. It can be simple and for most parts of Germany its down to that 4-5 categories. Do not get a wrong picture! This video is not what its like in Germany for the ordinary person. Its funny to watch though
@@Alexander-dt2eq Thank you for the further explanation.
Bio degratable bags help alot to keep the bin clean, but I don't know if Germany sells them. A cllean container reduces magots significantly. If it is dirty clean it thoroughly. Put something under the lid like a piece of wood so you can ventilate the bin. If you can find it in your garden or neighbourhood tie a piece of hedera or lavenderblooms on the lid and hang them inside the bin or put some mothballs in a old pantyhose and tie it on the lid hang it inside the bin. When all this fails and you still got magots. Put your bin out in the open in the morning leave the lid completly open and give the birds a feast.
I think Kevin can now work as a recycling consultant ... A side job maybe.
Right?! Helping immigrants learn how to recycle 🤣🚛.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Not only immigrants..... :-)
Totally agreed.
I think that 20 categories is really the optimum. Many people where I live only do the following categories:
Yellow Bin (Plastic; Packaging made from Aluminium, Styrofoam and Weißblech; Mixed Packaging)
Green Bin (Paper)
Brown Bin (Organic Waste)
Grey Bin (Restmüll)
Pfandflaschen & Bierkisten
(Can be returned at almost any grocery store)
Glass bottles without Pfand
(Containers found every 500 or so meters in most towns;
Seperated by white, green and brown color)
Batteries
(Many grocery stores have bins for them behind the checkout area)
Sondermüll (Mostly Electronic Waste)
(Brought to a Werkstoffhof)
Sperrmüll (for any non-electrical waste that is too large for bins and/or doesn't fit into the other categories)
(This is collected once every few months, though you have to register in advance that you want them to pick up your Sperrmüll)
Super funny and great knowledge! Every german I know loves to drive to the Werkstoffhof on the weekend. Somehow there is a great sense of comradery there. (btw: a great place to meet germans casually.) - I can't wait for part two: "How to recycle electrical appliances".
The Wertstoffhof is definitely crowded on the weekends! I often go first thing in the morning on weekdays after the kids are off to school.
Electrical appliances are next level 😆
@@kevinmcfall5285 Yes! Not having a 9-to-5 really helps to avoid the busy hours ad the recycling station.
Love the shout out to the legend NALF! ;) great job and really enjoying your videos. As a German I can say that your family is doing a great job overall! Good to have folks like you here!
I use biodegradeble kittylitter which can be disposed in the "Biotonne"
Ah cool! We will have to get some of that. Where do you get it?
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife At "Fressnapf" or "Zooplus", I usually order it online, so I don't have to carry the heavy bags :)
Great, thank you!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Get it from DM: Dein Bestes Öko-Klumpstreu. It's made of very small wood chips and costs €3,95 for 10 liters. The one you can buy at the pet shop is called Cat's Best and is more expensive.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife also you can use sawdust, leaves, gras and bushes from the garden when you cut them and some of the paper egg boxes are also no problem. It works like a sponge and soak up the moisture and smell. In your region Traunstein all Bio-Müll goes to a biogas plant for make energy and fertilizer.
For the smell and maggots/flies use vinegar water. 1Liter "Essig-Essenz 80%" cost maybe €10. It's enough for 10-20 liter vinegar water or the next 2-3 years. Just put the vinegar water in a old spray bottle and spray it sometimes over your Biomüll. When the vinegar smell is to strong to you put some peppermint or lavender oil in it. This 3 smells this typ of flies hate.
Lavender is the best natural insects stopp, only real bees and butterflies like lavender. Also lavender is a easy and good looking garden plant.