Sorting out the Rubbish

Recycling is a serious affair in the Nordics. Environmentalism seems to be in the air they breathe. The countryside is pristine, and they work very hard to keep it that way.

In Norway, the recycling system is well organized. There are specific colors of garbage bags for different types of trash, helping to separate and dispose of things properly and allowing for easy sorting when collected. Green is for compostable items, blue is for plastics, white is for paper. White bags are also used for general trash.

When shopping, a small fee is added to the price of any plastic bottle or aluminum can you purchase, from juice to beer. This fee is returned when you recycle the item using machines found at the entrance to any grocery store. To make things easy on citizens, the receipt you get from the machine can be applied to your grocery bill inside.

Glass seems to be the same as it is here – you have to find a collection box somewhere because they’re not included in the regular recycling program. And that makes sense. No one wants to get cut on broken glass mixed in with the paper and plastic.

In my neighborhood we have a recycling program as well. Unfortunately it’s more of an afterthought than a way of life. Trash is collected weekly, but recycling is only collected every two weeks. This makes it difficult to recycle a majority of household trash because there simply isn’t room in the bin.

I’ve been pretty relaxed about my recycling habits. It’s just not as much of a priority socially here as it is in other places in the world. But I do care for the planet. And I do make an effort to put the recycling where it belongs. But I hadn’t made a concerted effort to create a recycling system in our home.

I believe it’s the systems in place in Norway that help the people to maintain good recycling habits. So, in the Nordic spirit of making it a priority to care for our environment and the planet, I have finally implemented a system for recycling. I’ve installed sorting bins inside the house using the Norwegian rules: plastic, paper, regular trash. I haven’t yet made a bin for composting, but that will come soon.

I do have to put in some effort to make it work. Tasks like rinsing out  containers or collapsing boxes to conserve space take more time than I usually spend on my trash, but it allows me to use the city’s current collection system more efficiently.

And I feel better knowing that I am doing a very small part in keeping our planet healthy for the next generation, my own children included.

What did I learn from this?

Taking care of the planet is worth a little extra effort. And it makes you feel good.