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Recycling and waste disposal

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – these are the three R’s of recycling and the foundations of environmentally sound consumer behaviour. This means reducing waste, reusing raw materials and recycling correctly. We would be happy to show you here how recycling can be done without great effort.

What can you do?

Bring your things to the recycling center:

  •  Usually it is the municipal depot, which enables the recycling of various raw materials in one place. However, there are also private raw material traders who offer this service free of charge (with the exception of refuse that is subject to a charge, such as bulky items). All you have to do is observe the opening hours.

Take advantage of recycling collection services:

  • It’s even easier with a collection service. In this way you can collect almost any type of recyclable material (household refuse, glass, plastic, …) in a sack and have it collected. For example, this service is offered by Mr. Green or the IG Arbeit, though a fee is charged.

Additional Informationen

Recycling is often associated with a certain amount of effort, yet as calculations by Swiss Recycling show: The total environmental benefit of recycling in Switzerland is equivalent to the combined residential energy requirements of the inhabitants of Zurich, Basel, Lucerne and Berne.

Comparisons can be made when breaking down to the tonne:

  • One tonne of recycled aluminium packaging saves the equivalent on environmental impact* as that caused by driving 30,500 km; equivalent to 30 times the distance from Zurich to Barcelona!
  • One tonne of recycled PET bottles saves as much energy as a 12-watt energy-efficient lamp would use over a span of 52 years.
  • One tonne of recycled glass packaging saves on environmental impact* as that which is generated by the continuous use of a laptop for 1.7 years.

Also important to know: Household waste is not, as is often assumed, sorted and recycled before incineration. Thus, if you dispose of glass, aluminium or other recyclable materials within your household waste, they will be used to generate energy (in the form of heat) at the refuse incineration plant.

* The assessment of the environmental impact is based on the method of ecological scarcity. “According to the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, the central parameters of the method are the eco-factors (including CO2, air pollutants or land use), which indicate the environmental impact of a pollutant emission or resource extraction in the unit environmental impact points (EIP) per unit of quantity. In determining the eco-factors, the current emission situation on the one hand and the Swiss or the international targets supported by Switzerland on the other, play a major role”. According to Carbotech, 1000 UBP correspond to the pollution caused by a 3 km car journey.

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