Get Your Hands “Dirty” in Germany

For the general public, throwing rubbish into the right bins could be a great starting point for environmental protection.

Best Recycling Rate Around the Globe

When I first moved into the Olympisches Dorf in September, my eyes were immediately caught by its intense colorfulness – not just those exquisitely-painted facades of the bungalows but also a wide variety of waste bins and containers of different sizes and colors.

I instantaneously realized that this was going to be another “frustration”, apart from all the administrative formalities that I had to go through before settling down as an exchange student in Germany.

In 2017, a Euromia report revealed the fact that Germany has the top recycling rate in the world, with as much as 56 percent of its municipal waste recycled rather than simply winding up in landfills.

To be a resident of Germany, I would first and foremost have to learn how to dispose of garbage properly. Fortunately, all the color-coded trash containers did not take long to make sense. Blue bins are for paper and cardboard, yellow bins (or bags) for things’ packaging, black bins for miscellaneous waste that does not belong to any other bins.

Such a system is well-designed or even flawless. You can never doubt someone’s environmental consciousness if she/he is seen doing it right all the time. Nevertheless, as days pass by, it seems to me that not everyone is sticking to the rule.

Being Confused When I Opened the Bins

It is the fact that I had kept noticing some misplaced trash that has convinced me that wrong waste separation is not a one-time occurrence but happens on a daily basis. While I am not sure if some pieces of clothing should actually end up in a black container instead of a donation bin, it would be undebatable for a sparkling clean cardboard to go to a blue bin.

As Deutsche Presse-Agentur and The Local reported, the Federal Association of Secondary Raw Materials (BVSE) estimated that between 40 and 60 percent of plastic waste was thrown into wrong bins in Germany in 2017.

Similarly, in 2018, DW reported that in big German cities, up to 50 percent of general waste ends up in yellow bins that are intended for packaging products like plastics, tin cans and Tetra Paks.

This explains why sometimes I was standing next to a bin, holding onto my trash bag while being extremely confused, as the real-world practice somehow deviated from the theory I learnt online. As a new resident in Germany, I was being highly susceptible to the misleading trash right in front of me.

“It’s Common to See Trash Misplaced, but It’s Not of Significant Concern”

In light of what I had experienced, I interviewed Andi, a friend of mine who has been living in Munich for years for some insights. “It feels like mission impossible to ask each and every person to follow this waste separation system in an accurate and consistent manner,” he says. “It’s common to see trash misplaced, but it’s not of significant concern I would say. For me, it is totally acceptable as long as a vast majority of people are still respecting the rule.”

His confidence in the overall functionality of the recycling system can indeed be justified. As I was walking around in the downtown, I have spotted a good presence of a variety of waste bins on almost every street, be it blue or black, for biodegradables or for bulky leftover construction materials.

These bins sit nicely in designated zones on the streets. They are usually carefully arranged and maintained depending on their whereabouts – black and blue bins are the most common ones and usually placed together; there is always a giant container next to a construction site. At train and S-Bahn stations, one can even find waste bins accepting trash in four different languages! Except for a few overfilled bins, it looks like the entire system is working exceptionally well.

“However, it would be great if those people could take a step further so that more rubbish can land in the right place. The misplaced rubbish, after all, will probably need to be sorted manually by lots of workers. By doing it right, we can not only make their work a lot easier but become truly environmentally-friendly citizens,” says Andi.

Right, it is time to get our hands real ”dirty“. ◼