Thursday, September 6, 2012

the rest of it (restavfall)

I asked tamara about recycling in the building and she explained that the system for recycling here is like any other.  you collect cans and bottles and bring them down once a week (or so) to a recycling/ trash room.  someone comes along and empties that room once a week (or so).  the same key (assa abloy by the way) that gets you in the front door of her building and her apartment also gives access to the recycling room.
recycling room and trash collection
recycling room for my building complex (around the entire courtyard).

provides safe way to deposit glass
smartly put a locking system on the glass collection.  no unnecessary cuts or accidents here.
I can't say it smelled very pleasant inside, but most trash rooms are not exactly appealing places to hang out and enjoy a cocktail or a nice meal.

cardboard recycling
cardboard recycling
paper recycling
paper recycling
the room has motion sensor lights, as pretty much everything does in the entire apartment complex.  it has cement board walls and ceilings, plastic recycling and trash bins, and signs on the walls corresponding to each bin.  again, very simple and very functional.

clear glass recycling
clear glass recycling
colored glass recycling
colored glass recycling
they separate the recycling here in the room, which is something it seems most american cities are going away from (maybe this is not the case for apartment buildings, but it definitely seems as though individual point collection at houses is becoming more of a "throw everything into one bin" approach as opposed to having it all presorted as it was in the 1990's and early 2000's).

plastic recycling
plastic recycling (except plastic bags)
lighting recycling
lighting recycling/ disposal
tamara says that its a pretty easy system for her except for the fact that she needs several different containers in the house.  in fact, I count that she has six (6) separate containers, which seems a little much from my perspective, especially when living in a small apartment.
  
batteries recycling
battery recycling
electronics recycling
electronics recycling
(1) she has a tiny (I repeat... TINY) trash bin under the sink that is about the size of a toaster.  it seems to always have almost nothing in it.  (2) behind that she has a metal bin, equally as small (I have been putting beer cans and mackerel in tomato tins into this bin quite frequently).  she has a larger cardboard bin (3) and a larger plastics bin (4) in the kitchen on the floor.  she has a batteries/ glass bin (5) under the sink.  then outside of her apartment door she has a mini metal trashcan that has more bottles (6).  wow.
metal recycling
metal recycling
yes, the word they use for trash in Swedish is RESTAVFALL and as you would guess, it basically means "the rest of it".  actual translation seems to be "residual waste", which is an extremely accurate description of what goes into that one bin.  go figure, they first dispose of everything else to be reused, turned into energy, or recycled.  then they have a bin for the rest of it. 

residual waste (trash)
residual waste... the rest of it



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