As an expatriate in this Bundesland, garbage has still got me confused, more than a year post-arrival. By all account, it is the most competent waste disposal system I have encounter, putting to shame any North American efforts. Yet, its symbolism goes much further than environmental concerns, it embodies perhaps some basic tenets of the 'German Way'.
First, the system has five different bins. 1-Paper, 2-Compost, 3-Glass, 4-Wrappings, 5-the trash. Each household pays the city for a weekly allowance of trash (all the grimmy non-recyclable stuff). We have a whooping 60 liters of trash in my house, or the equivalent of a carry-on luggage. So, better get the rest all out of the way. So we split all of the above duly, filing the external bin, and a funny looking 'Gelbe Sack' or yellow bag, with all the wrappings. Interestingly, the manufacture of a good must pay for disposing of the wrapping, a system called the 'Grune Punkt' or green dot, which is actually black.
As a wasteful Canadian, it took me perhaps a whole year to figure the tricker part of the system, Glass. Unlike our simplistic green box in Montreal where you just put all your glass and paper on the curb-side, here one must 'go' to a big bin in the neighborhood and drop of the glass. However, the complexity is not over, once there one must separate the green, clear and brown glass. Wow. This would never ever work in my 'Heimlatland'.
A City of Freiburg staff explaining the waste system to an Indian Delegation during a ICLEI Conference in Freiburg: Local Renewables Freiburg 2007, june 7.Beyond the nuts and bolts of the system, it can be seen as a metaphor of German behaviors. Germans are rule abiding. Period. While they are free-thinkers, sometimes living on the margins, creative and bold, they follow some basic social rules. It helps that the system is somehow 'policed', but how much, I wonder?
German enjoy a clean environment. This country has 80 millions of people on half the land area of Ontario and still preserves much of its forests. Being concerned about climate change or water pollution is all but a fringe attitude. Threaten some German to cut a forest and they shall form multiple week-end activity clubs to hike its trails, do environmental education and grow rare species of mushrooms. And it would operate flawlessly.
Even in my German course a whole lesson was dedicated to the vocabulary of trash. My teacher initiated an intercultural discussion on waste streams in our home countries. A little bewildered, we proceeded, not sure that we had much to say beyond 3 sentences. I sensed a certain pride in her tone. She should be - yet I find it always slightly disturbing.
If there is anything I am learning in my stay in this Bundesland is that German are hard to beat for making systematic operations. (Perhaps the Swiss have an edge there, but still). There is an enthusiasm shared at the national level to make things work. And they do.
Cheers,
