It's not often you see them out all together...

Here in Belgium we take recycling seriously, but usually the collection days are staggered, one week they collect the 'leftover refuse', the other the plastic, paper each month, but today all bins were out in full force - although my neighbour made a mistake, PMD wasn't due till next week ;)

If anyone's interested at all:
little green one: kitchen waste - from october till march bi-weekly, during summer weekly, free
big green one: garden waste - bi-weekly, free
blue one: paper and cardboard - monthly, free
blue bags = PMD (plastic, metal, drinking cartons) - bi-weekly, staggered with leftover, bags to buy in local shops, cost: 2.5 euro for 20 bags
grey container: leftover waste - bi-weekly, staggered with PMD, cost: 3 euro for a small (120l) one, 6 euro for a big (240l) one, sticker(s) need to be bought at local shops and affixed to each bin, which will then be removed by the bin (wo)men after collecting. If it doesn't all fit in 1 container, additional bags (60l) can be bought at 1.5 euro each.
For glass there's a big bubble container at the entrance of the estate - loads are dotted through the town.

All the rest of your refuse needs to be brought to the container 'park' where different costs are applied to different waste - and only accepted when you can provide your id card to show you're a resident of the according village.

Ah yes, there's also a trimesterly 'chemokar' which is a special truck that's parked for a few hours at certain local points, where you can deposit your 'small dangerous waste' - out of date medication needs to be brought back to the chemist.

This week is No Impact Week so I thought it rather appropriate to show we're working on it :)


I own a small green one, a small grey one (which I usually put out only once a month as it's never filled to the brim on a fortnight) and a blue one. As I haven't got a car, all lamps in the house are energy saver ones, we've got water butts (plural) for rainwater collection, a wormery, a compost tip, a compost bin, rabbits instead of a lawnmower and I tend to bang on the bathroom door and moan about water waste far too often according to my teenage daughters, my ecological footprint is smaller than the average one already - ahem :D

Still, there's always room for improvement :)

So, what are you doing for No Impact Week?