Let's Talk Trash...and Recycling
- Cat
- Feb 24, 2017
- 4 min read
Before moving here, we knew Europeans were light years ahead of Americans when it came to recycling, but we didn't realize the Finns are even more conscientious about it than anyone! It's admirable and something we are excited to learn about and take part in.
Our building has a garbage room about the size of 3 single-car garages. Inside, there is a trash can for nearly EVERY type of waste you can think of! In our apartment, we have three trash cans to help us sort: General household waste that cannot be recycled, biowaste, and a recycling bin which is used to hold recyclables you sort downstairs later. Sounds complicated and time consuming, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy!
Our cans include the following:
Lasipakkaukset - Glass jars and non-deposit glass bottles. No ceramics, dirnking glasses, etc. Glass Packaging waste is transported mainly to England in a Berry Man Knottingley glass processing plant. The cleaned and sorted glass material is supplied from the container to a glass factory, which produces about bottles and jars for the food industry. Deposit glass bottles get turned in at grocery stores for coupons!
Kuivajate - Home mixed wastes that can not be sorted in other applications, such as: textiles, shoes, leather, rubber, kitchen towels, napkins and handkerchiefs, diapers, sanitary, porcelain, ceramics, drinking glasses, heat-resistant glass and other domestic glass, window and mirror glass, light bulbs. The power plant in town is powered on energy produced by the incineration of the city's trash.
Kartonki - This cart takes the following: Packages made of cardboard (eg. Cookie packs and multi-packs), Paperboard cans, Cardboard disposable tableware, Cardboard boxes, corrugated board packaging, toilet paper cores, egg cartons, Paper bags and bags, Copy paper wrappers. The city makes energy from incinerating these items from what we understand as well.
Sekajate - General household waste that cannot be sorted. The material here is dried then incincerated and it produces the majority of the heat and electricity for the city!
Metallipakkausjäte - Recycled metal is processed into the metal as a raw material and made into new metal products. Items include: Tin cans and Non-deposit beverage cans, Aluminum trays and foils, Pots, pans, Empty paint cans, Metal lids and caps, Cutlery, small metal tools.
Biojate - Organic waste is put into this cart. The country produces bioethanol fuel used to power city buses from these items. These items include: Fruit and vegetable peelings, Meat and fish, spent coffee grounds, tea bags and filter bags, Food residues and small bones, egg shells, soured foods. We also have a separate cart for garden waste the city uses as compost.
Kerayspaperi - Recovered paper is processed and made into raw material for other paper. Recyclable paper pulp also helps make insulation for houses. This cart takes: Newspapers and magazines (no need to remove staples), Advertisements and envelopes, Catalogs and books (remove plastic-coated and hard covers), Copying and printing papers, shredded paper.
Plastics and deposit glass bottles get taken with you to the grocery store and recycled. At each store, there is a kiosk you insert your soda or beer cans, plastic bottles (soda or water typically), and deposit glass bottles. The machine "reads" the type of recyclable you have put in, and the screen shows you the amount you get back. Beer and soda cans are €0.15 each. Small plastic soda and water bottles are €0.20 each. Larger plastic bottles (1 Liter size) are €0.40 each. Glass bottles range from €0.20-0.50 each. After you have inserted all your recyclables into the machine, it tallies up everything and spits out a receipt with the total deposited. This total is used at the store as a coupon off your purchase of anything! It's really a neat system and definitely encourages recycling these items. I wish the States had something like this.
We are using the receipts as behavior rewards for G. We try to take our recyclables up one at a time and collect the receipts. When G does something exceptionally good, he gets one receipt. If he misbehaves, he must give up one receipt (we don't have him pay attention to the amounts yet). Once he has 10 receipts, we allow him to select something at the store - candy, nuts, special snacks, flowers, etc. He's excited about it, we will let you know if it works long term.
If you are so inclined, you can learn more about waste separating HERE. Google Translate isn't perfect, but it will give you a basic idea!
Another thing we admire about this country (and Europe in general) - reusable bags are THE NORM. While these are starting to become used more often in the states, it's still something we often forgot to bring with us. Here in Finland (as with several other European countries I know of), you are penalized for not using reusable bags! It's wonderful! You have to pay between €0.15-0.30 PER BAG if you don't bring your own. It's small change, but it does add up, and I go out of my way to remember my grocery bags when I leave the house now! Who knew that's all it'd take! Like most European countries, it's pretty standard to shop several times a week rather than stock up for a full week or two. The maximum number of bags I have on a trip is three - sometimes pretty heavy but still manageable with a three-year-old that I also have to keep a hand on when walking home from the store.
Click an image in the gallery below to enlarge.
Things we've learned about Finland this week:
Finns have made recycling fun, easy, and real. Seeing the results firsthand make you want to go out of your way to participate.
Forget your bag while shopping, pay the price! This also leads to hoarding plastic bags you either HAVE paid for, or receive when you make a purchase at certain stores that don't charge for them when you purchase more than one item - some clothing stores, household stores, and some specialty shops.
Reward systems with recycling benefits are cool! (But we're not sure G understands the impact of what he's helping do yet.)
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