Garbage and Recycling
Garbage and Recycling in Zurich
Swiss cities, towns and villages are renowned for their hygience and cleanliness. Every Canton has a good waste disposal and recycling system in place. To begin with, understand what can be binned and what can composted and what can be recycled. Citizens pay for their waste disposal, by buying special garbage disposal bags.
Every Stadt has a recycling department – eg. the Zurich Satdt has the Entsorgung Recycling department that handles all the day to day garbage, compost, recycling. Every year in December, the departments sends the yearly recycling calendar dates for your area/zipcode- The calendar can be checked online. The calendar includes paper and cardboard recycling collection dates in the area, the dates the e-tram and cargo trams comes to the area. The department also encloses free vouchers for bulk disposal of items.
The Entsorgung + Recycling Zürich-App is also available for finding out dates for recycling collection.
House-hold garbage should be binned in special ‘Sacks’ (plastic bags from the Stadt), these are available in many sizes in most supermarkets (ask at the till, they are not stocked in the shelves) and in the Postoffice. The gray collection bins are to be used for this garbage disposal.
Vegetable peels, food waste can be composted, these go into the green bins. Bio-degradable bags in a couple of sizes are available at the supermarkets and can be used to collect and drop the waste in the green bins.
Plastic bottles & batteries can be dropped in special bins at supermarkets like Coop and Migros.
Glass and metal can be recycled in specific areas within the city. Glass is separated by colour into white, green etc.
These are collected once a month and fortnightly, they can be left outside the house on designated days. The Stadt calendar gives the dates based on the area you reside in.
Some Stadts like Zurich have a collection from outside the home, once every 3 months, a plastic bag comes in the post and old clothes & shoes (in decent- usable condition) can be left outside the house on the designated days in these special bags.
Alternatively, TexAid collection boxes can be used. These are usually adjacent to the Bottle & Can recycling.
In big cities like Zurich, other big things like furniture, mattresses, old pots and pans etc – there is a cargo tram that comes once a month to a designated point in the area for a few hours. The Calendar has the dates, you will need to drop them off yourself.
In big cities like Zurich, Electrical appliances – there is a e-tram that comes once a month to a designated point in the area for a few hours. The Calendar has the dates, you will need to drop them off yourself.
The Stadt sends free vouchers per.year for bulk disposal of household items .
There are two recycling yards in the Zurich city for example – Recyclinghof Hagenholz & Recycling yard Werdhölzli.
There are a few avenues for finding a new home for furniture, kid’s clothes, toys, books etc either free or sale:
1. You can leave the Items outside your house with a Gratis sign.
2. Brockehaus : these are places to give away things that are in good condition.
3. Online Forums like the ‘English Forum’, the ‘Zurich second hand Facebook page’ – you can search for these in your location.
