Rubbish!

[Silly]

Hi,

so here I am in my new empty flat. Nice place, in a building with a courtyard where I noticed some garbage containers. So, here's the question: how does the recyclying work in Helsinki? How do you separate the rubbish? Glass all together, or split in dark/green/clear? Special colour code for the bags? When and where do they collect it? What about paper, aluminium, plastic?

Consumed by my doubts, for now I've been collecting all the rubbish in the empty room... but soon it'll start to stink (bleah!) so please... answer quickly!

Cheers

S

[Jukka Aho]

how does the recyclying work in Helsinki? How do you separate the rubbish? Glass all together, or split in dark/green/clear? Special colour code for the bags? When and where do they collect it? What about paper, aluminium, plastic?

See here, and the links on the sidebar of that page.

[Silly]

Thanks

[smoo]

I've been here for ages and I'm still not 100% certain about some items. I have 4 main bins for rubbish - mixed waste, bio, paper and cardboard/cartons. It's the choice between cardboard and paper that always gets me. How about very thin card, such as cinema tickets, inserts for packaging etc? Strictly speaking it's cardboard, but it's exactly the same sort of material as a lot of the stuff that falls out of the inside of magazines. And how about big pieces of brown wrapping paper? I usually put that in the cardboard bin as I seem to remember trying to read the instructions on the front of the paper bin once and getting the impression that brown paper wasn't allowed. Not sure though.

[Hank W.]

Really, if you don't have anything better to worry about try making origamis, otherwise your brain will fly out the window and go hide in a tree when you really get something to worry about.

Thumb rule is, if in doubt, put it in "cardboard". Paper is "bleached" paper, not brown, stuff like newspaper, envelopes, phone books (salvage the map from number two with the streetfinder) etc. Main thing is not to mix plastic into there.

Biohazard is also a bit picky.

[smoo]

It's not worrying, it's righteous pedantry, with a smigeon of curiosity Believe me if I was worrying you'd know about it, I worry dramatically.

[Hank W.]

it's righteous pedantry, with a smigeon of curiosity

So you're one of these people weighing the groceries before tying the knot into the bag?

[smoo]

Hmm... is there a trick I'm missing here? Maybe the knot makes it easier to lift the bag slightly and fool the scales? Not that I'd ever attempt that of course.

[Hank W.]

Oh, its so that the weight of the knot wouldnt weigh... erm... granny logic.