Trash in Germany.
There are just so many bins. Bins upon bins upon bins.
Okay. I guess that's it.
Just kidding! There’s more to this video and German trash rules than just bins.
Although it is really a lot of bins.
Hey everyone! I’m Dana and you’re watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
From what I was able to find, every county in Germany has its own trash rules and regulations,
which is pretty much the same as how I've experienced it in the U.S., so that didn’t
really come as such a shock to me or anything like that.
But so in this video we’re going to be focusing on two areas on opposite sides of the country,
and hopefully that provides some range in rules.
And those areas are Munich and Bergheim, an area just outside of Cologne because we live
in Munich now and Mr. German Man grew up in Bergheim.
The general waste bin is black, which is actually the same as where I’m from in South Florida.
The bin for paper trash, that is neither wet nor dirty, is blue.
And the wet and dirty paper trash needs to just go into the general waste bin.
The bin for organic waste is brown, but we learned from our research, don’t you dare
put an organic trash bag into that bin.
Even if you go out and specifically pay extra to buy trash bags that are advertised as being
organic and compostable and made specifically to be put into the brown organic trash bins.
No, you're not supposed to do it.
And a bin color that does not actually exist in Munich, but does exist in Bergheim is yellow,
but more on that one later.
I’ve mentioned Pfand, which is the German word for a recycling deposit, in a couple videos already.
But the important thing for this video is that some glass containers and bottles are
not able to be brought back to the store for Pfand.
So, there’s no deposit on them when you buy them.
You just have to recycle them. But where?
You actually have to look around a little bit for these glass bins.
In both Munich and Bergheim they are not kept with the other bins as part of the “normal”
trash that gets collected from your home each week, but rather they're located
somewhere else in the area.
They're usually quite big bins and you need to sort your glass according to color.
So clear glass goes in one bin, green glass goes in another, and brown glass goes in yet
another bin.
And as I also mentioned in the video on what not to do in Germany on Sunday, they have
“opening times” during which you're allowed to go throw away your glass, and it’s printed
on the container.
For example, here you’re not allowed to throw away your glass on Sunday or after 7 p.m.
It might sound silly, but it’s because they’re sometimes located next to houses and the noise
of the glass breaking in there could be annoying, especially if it’s done at 2 in the morning
or something like that.
As I mentioned, Bergheim also has a yellow bin, and it's for plastic.
But not any old plastic. No, no, no, no.
Only the plastics that are labeled with the green recycling dot.
The plastics without the dot go into the general waste bin.
Which I would just like to say, is an amazing concept.
In the U.S., in both Florida and Colorado, where my parents now live, there are no green dots.
They just got a list from the county, listing out what is recyclable and what is not.
So you always have to pull out the list and check.
Is this recyclable, is this not?
So yeah, green dots sound really, really great!
I’ve seen these kinds of containers in Munich but Mr. German Man can’t remember if they
exist in Bergheim, so please, people from around Germany, let us know if you have these
where you live.
The plastic container is for somewhat larger plastic packaging, like plastic shower gel
bottles or shampoo bottles, cleaning supplies.
Small plastic bits, like wrappers just go into the general waste bin.
And the big aluminum bin is for, well, stuff made out of aluminum. Makes sense.
Sam over on the YouTube channel SamWaltonMan made a couple videos about the phenomenon
here in Germany that is Sperrmüll.
Sperren means blocking and Müll is trash, so put that together and you’ve got Sperrmüll,
large bulky waste that doesn’t fit into the bins.
In Bergheim and other areas there are either timetables for when the Sperrmüll is picked up,
or you have to call the trash office, and if enough people from your area request a
pick-up then you’ll get an appointment.
Mr. German Man said that at least in Bergheim this service is offered for free, but he doesn’t
know about other areas in Germany.
In Munich, for example, you can also get the city to pick up your Sperrmüll,
but it will cost you.
However, there is a free option available here, too.
Hof in this case means something like yard, as in junkyard, except it’s the recycling yard,
and you can bring your Sperrmüll to one of the many recycling yards located around
the city for free.
And you can not only bring your Sperrmüll like old mattresses, wood, couches and so
on here, but you can also bring your dangerous trash.
In Munich and also in Bergheim you have to bring everything that is considered dangerous
trash to the Recyclinghof, like old paint and electronic waste.
In Bergheim there are also mobile recycling yards on wheels that go around to the small
villages to pick this kind of stuff up every so often too.
And just like in the U.S., you also have metal scrapyards that are privately run.
And in Bergheim some of these metal scrapyards also have mobile collector trucks that
drive around to the villages.
They usually come on Saturday morning ringing a big ol’ bell out the window as they drive by.
And they go very slowly, and you have to run out the door and stop them if you have trash for them.
This happened once when Mr. German Man and I were visiting his mom, and I heard the bell
and I thought that it was an ice cream truck.
But no, I was told that it’s the friendly neighborhood scrap metal truck.
Not as exciting as an ice cream truck. But still pretty cool.
And at least in Munich, small amounts of old metal can also be brought to the Recyclinghof.
So my question for you is: How is trash separated where you live?
Please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching. I really hope that you enjoyed this video.
A few super quick announcements, first of all I have gotten a question about the Spargelzeit
T-shirt being gone. Yes, it is gone.
It was just around for Spargelzeit, which ended the end of June.
Maybe it’ll come back next year, I’m not sure yet.
But for now we do have three new summer T-shirt designs, including this one, the Biergarten
Bunch shirt, an ice cream shirt, and a German Summer T-shirt, which will all be available
until the end of September.
And we also have the Wanted Adventure T-shirts.
So I will put a link to that down in the description box below if you want to check it out.
And I also want to give a really, really big thank so much to everyone who has been creating
subtitle and description translations for my videos.
It is so cool to see how many translations in so many different languages have been made.
Thank you so much.
If you want to create your own translations or help review the translations that have
already been made - because the translations wait for a certain amount of reviews before
actually being released - I will put a link and information down below to how to do that too.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
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help make these videos possible.
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If you would like to check out our Patreon page you can also find a link to that down
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Okay, that's all for the announcements.
Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
Also have mobile trucks...collector trucks.
Or you have to call the trash office and...
There are either...
Shower bottles, gel bottles...gel bottles?
Plastic shower gel bottles or shampoo gel bot... What?
And it's for plastic...
And yeah, this list is of course by no means complete. If you...