Recycling in Luzern, Switzerland

Well, after spending a year in one of the wealthiest countries in the world I have started to understand how good this country really is in recycling, well actually it only took a week.

Swiss people are extremely aware of what they throw away and where they throw it and of course at what time. To throw away trash you have to buy special bags that you costs a pound each. On these bags it says what you are and what you are not allowed to throw in them. For example you can't throw paper, glass, batteries or aluminium these things you have to throw in seperate boxes which you can find around the city or in the supermarket.

This "system" with the bags works really good and I think that there are several reasons for that. First of all the Swiss people are very exact and accurate, secondly it is a clean and beautiful country and the intend to keep it that way, third of all you will get a fine if someone catches you throwing any of these things in the bag or if you use another type of bag. They do have special people that goes around the city to try and find the "cheaters", if the catch them they will have to pay as much as a £ 100.

It is so easy to find things on the internet these days, this is what I found about the Swiss recycling "history". The Swiss are champion recyclers. In 2003, 47% of all urban waste was recycled - a new Swiss record. They recycled 70% of paper, 95% of glass, 71% of plastic bottles, 85-90% of aluminium cans and 75% of tin cans.

A law was introduced in 1998 forbidding consumers from throwing electric and electronic goods out with the household rubbish. Therefore Switzerland is a pioneer in the recycling of electrowaste. The most important material to be recycled is the metal content.

Hopefully this can make other countries follow Switerzland's good example and keep up the good recycling traditions! At least I am following these traditions and I'm really trying to get others to do the same, hopefully you are too. :)