Some time ago I came across a strange collection box somewhere in central Switzerland. It looked like the old clothes collection boxes. But it was labeled getraenkekarton.ch.
This made me very curious, so I searched the Internet at home. It's exciting what you find out there. I now collect them and save a 35 liter waste bag per month.
Unfortunately, you can't take the drinks cartons back to Migros, which I think is a shame, because Migros always says it's doing something for the environment.
Why can't such collection points also be set up in the larger Migros stores?
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All replies (72)
Guest
@Better-Eater... it's best to pack the "beverage cartons", which are not "cartons" at all, in a large plastic bag ... then, in addition to the gasoline, you'll have some really nice plastic waste. Don't forget the ribbon and wrapping paper so that your "gift" really "goes in".
Please learn to sort the garbage ... then you might realize that Tetra packs are not "drinks cartons" ... if they really were "cartons" ... then they belong in the paper collection.
@deactivated userHello Obermotzer I was really waiting to receive your stupid comment. Thank you for doing me the great honor. Reading your comment now, one can clearly see the level of your thinking.
Guest
Thank you Esue,
It is always a great pleasure for me to deal with extremely friendly, polite and intelligent contemporaries like you. Surely you were a "child prodigy"?
Every compliment makes you happy... so your compliment: "I was really waiting to receive your stupid comment" comes just in time! ... Do I understand that correctly ... you're now sitting in a corner with your mega **bleep** smartphone, waiting for my comments? And when one finally comes, you fall off your stool?
While you're waiting there now, eagerly, for my next comment ... and apparently even crying ... pull yourself together ... and write down exactly what is so terribly "stupid" about my comment.
It's absolutely essential that I finally learn something and become a bit more intelligent ... and I also need to take a few courses in good manners ... and since you are obviously a true role model ... I graciously ask you to teach me. You seem to be the kind of Mrs. Rotenmeier who taught Heidi how to behave well. Will I also get a diploma from you?
You'll also have to explain the ingenious, encyclopedia-like content of your comments to me in detail ... stupid people like me are, due to the system, somewhat obtuse and unteachable!
And then you are also a great specialist from the inventors' guild ... the fact that, thanks to you, drinks can now also be packed in cartons ... is almost mega ultra cool!
Many kind and respectful greetings ... are sent to you.
I'm looking forward to your next insults .... don't mince your words and always jerk-quick-quick-quick!
I have often noticed that Migros customers simply throw their Tetrapacks in with the plastic bottles. Surely this can't be a solution? It would be better for Migros to officially introduce recycling. Here is an article about it:
Beverage carton recycling is booming - only Coop and Migros are hesitating. The new collection rage is called Tetra. Nine out of ten Swiss would return milk cartons
"Many sectors can only dream of this growth. Within 36 months, the volume of beverage cartons collected has quadrupled! In the last three months of 2014, over 88 tons were returned. The Swiss Beverage Carton Recycling Association (GKR) has been able to convince more than 70 municipalities in eleven cantons to join in since 2012. Their recycling centers set up the green "Big Bag". 13 Spar stores are also taking part."
@Loxiran The "collection" of Tetra Packs, in sales outlets, is a very problematic thing ... If there was milk in it, the leftover milk can turn "sour" ... and that stinks terribly, especially if the "UHT" is milk.
If people are already used to collecting such packaging material and throwing it into the appropriate container, then there needs to be collection points where all this waste can be disposed of separately.
In La Chaux-de-Fonds, I've seen what happens when you create different return points for waste: almost in front of the Migros Metropole, there are 3 "collection points" for waste, in the Migros there is another collection point for PET bottles and on the 2nd floor there is (sometimes) a box for batteries and sometimes a box for ink cartridges. If you look at it without rose-tinted spectacles, there is a "pile of garbage" in every corner ... You have to create something like that centrally so that people can dispose of the stuff rationally.
It's also much more expensive if you "dispose" of the stuff in different places ... you have to collect the garbage and take it away. You don't have to keep many places clean either.
If you combine them, it would be much easier to introduce a system that "rewards" people for bringing it back.
If you take a look at the current situation, you realize that Migros and other major distributors can obviously attract customers with campaigns in which they distribute "garbage" ("Swiss-Mania"), then a simple bar code reader at every "recycling platform", where people can scan their "Cumulus card" (or similar) (so that they can then "win" a gift in a "prize draw"), is enough for people to visit these recycling locations with enthusiasm ...
It is now the case that waste disposal is becoming unnecessarily complicated and cumbersome. One example of this is the PET bottle recycling in Migros Metropole ... people drag the PET bottles into Migros ... into the basement. Migros then has to take the bottles away again ... if you could dispose of the stuff at one of the external collection points instead ... that would be much more practical.
It's also more than curious that there are some people here who want to "dispose" of waste in grocery stores ... it's sooooo clean! On the one hand "Hui" and next to it "Pfui"!
Too many different collection methods and locations also confuse people ...
@deactivated user It would be a good idea to wash out your bottles first. This also applies to the white milk bottles or cream cups etc. which have been recycled for years and can stink. There are also pet bottles with orange juice which start to stink. My experience is that the customer is too comfortable. That's why the customer or consumer prefers to take their old items back to where they can shop. That's why I often see aluminum cans, glass bottles, etc. being disposed of illegally instead of pet bottles at Migros, Coop or wherever. The same problem at the city's collection points where only glass and tin/aluminum can be brought in, where there are also illegal pet bottles in the old glass etc.. In my view, there are only two solutions. 1. the introduction of a deposit on everything, i.e. glass, pet, aluminum, cans, milk bottles, plastic bottles, tetra packs etc.. Then it would be worth returning the items. 2. a comprehensive but centrally located return service separated by type. With suitable containers that make "incorrect" recycling impossible and that can intelligently recognize what is thrown in. In combination with a deposit, the machine would then automatically release a voucher slip as long as the correct container was thrown in and if you throw in the wrong one, then there's no money back, period.
If no deposit is possible, then at least a reward system for the correct deposit. For example with Cumulus or Superpoints, which you get if you recycle correctly.
But I agree with you, in shopping centers the disposal points should be in one place. Some shopping centers have an additional glass/aluminum collection point. As described above, this is because the retail trade only takes back pet, plastic containers such as PE-HD or milk bottles, and the city takes care of glass/aluminum/sheet metal. From this point of view, it would be better to combine this structurally. In Migros in eastern Switzerland, at least the return stations for pet, PE, milk bottles, batteries, CDs and light bulbs are normally located in one place.
I imagine that if a deposit had to be paid on every container, then littering would also be reduced. It would then be worth picking everything up from the floor, as every bottle would be worth money again.
That's why I think retailers should reintroduce the deposit!
Guest
@lomoli you can recycle many things ... but you can't "recycle" the effort and energy consumption involved in getting the stuff to recycling ... We pack our waste carefully in plastic bags and/or very solid containers. You could almost think they were "gift packages" ... all that's missing is the "bow" and the greetings card. The cost of eliminating the "disposal structure" is often greater than the ecological benefit ....
The fact that some people here are talking about "drinks cartons" is also not very intelligent: Tetra packs are unfortunately not cartons, but usually a complicated "composite material". Many consist of paper, some kind of coating, aluminum foil and sometimes a plastic lid and other plastic waste ... I'm not going to argue with you about how environmentally friendly the "tetra pack" concept really is ... and I'm not going to tell you that "upcycling" is better than recycling (I use tetra packs as disposable dog bowls and you can also use them as a storage system for screws and the like instead of plastic inserts).
If, for example, people were taught to cut open tetra packs in a different way (as I do) then any plastic lids would become unnecessary and "only" the cardboard and aluminum foil would remain.
I'm all for recycling, but it shouldn't become an end in itself. Maybe take a look at the history of waste disposal in Switzerland ... the xy bucket was replaced by the Ochsner bucket ... then suddenly the Ochsner bucket was too cumbersome and was "disposed of" (= XXXXXXX tons of waste) and replaced by plastic bags. Then suddenly the plastic bags were nothing more ... They were replaced by plastic containers ... (whose disposal = XXXXXXXX tons) ... Now we have arrived at something else ... Steel containers (burglar-proof like Fort Knox), with letterbox slots ... into which we throw the garbage in plastic bags (best quality) ... we are currently considering how we can explain our extremely complicated "disposal system" to the refugees for many millions of francs.
We are so dumbed down that we don't even think it's bad if, for example, hundreds of PET bottles collected for recycling are lying around in the freight yard in La Chaux de Fonds ...
And another thing: the manufacturer of Tetra-Pack has extreme experience with different shapes of its packs ... so it would actually make sense for them to consider whether it is possible to design the shape in such a way that they can be put together after use to create a compact "package" that can then be recycled to save space. I would say you could pack about 10 empty Tetra packs into one and then "dispose" of them to save space ... the PET bottle stuff would look really sad .... 10 PET bottles (compressed!) are half an Ikea bag full ... 10 Tetra packs take up the space of one liter.
Guest
@Loxiran "It would be a good idea to wash out your bottles first." This is typical Swiss and German perfectionism ... you even wash the garbage ... you probably put it all in the dishwasher to make it really shiny. This is ecological nonsense and is based on "Teutonic" thinking. You can't enforce something like that further south ... they'll laugh at you! Even the stupid "letterbox slots" at paper collection points there would ensure that people simply put the paper in front of the container. And these people are right! Waste disposal must be simple and uncomplicated and not create waste itself.
PET bottles ... can't really stink for all I care ... they are disposed of with a lid screwed on (you're supposed to squeeze them together and then screw them shut so that no air is sucked in) ... it doesn't matter if there's anything left in them.
You talk about "illegal" disposal ... that's partly true. But this is also encouraged by the fact that "legal" disposal is often far too complicated. And ... as far as the "native" population is concerned, this is also an educational problem: I wouldn't dream of simply throwing garbage anywhere. I don't understand this with people from other cultures either, but perhaps they didn't learn from childhood that you don't just leave garbage lying around.
But it is also necessary for locals not to be harassed with overly complicated "disposal procedures". For example, I collect all my paper in a shopping bag or in a cardboard box and take it with me to the shopping center opposite where there is a paper container in front of it ... and I am annoyed every time that I have to put everything individually into such a stupid "mailbox slot". It's an imposition.
I'm also a logistician and as such I've learned how important it is to have perfectly organized processes.
The deposit system has apparently not proven itself in Germany ... disposable containers are now increasingly being used there.
First you have to try to reduce waste at source ... and then you have to come up with solutions for certain types of waste.
I have a friend in France who has come up with an idea that has even won an award from the UN. He asks his customers to bring him clean aluminum waste. He sells this aluminum to a scrap metal recycler and uses the money he earns to finance the education of young people in Africa. His customers know that they can make a difference with very little effort.
A machine that prints a voucher ... that also generates costs and dirt. And even hazardous waste: cheap ticket printers print on coated paper, which environmentalists classify as toxic. That is also an unnecessary expense.
I have no love for smartphones ... but they could also be used to scan a QR code. The smartphone can then transmit this to Migros, for example, where this code then triggers participation in a competition or a few points ... and you can then also link the "number of tickets", for example, or the amount of a prize, with the "operating conditions" of the recycling station (cleanliness, careful separation of waste) ... then the users have a "profit" if they collectively keep their garbage site clean. This creates a collective control where everyone has an interest in ensuring that the waste is sorted properly.
A deposit and any kind of coercion is never as good as collective public spirit.
What we do here ... 4 waste collection points in less than 50 meters around the Migros MMM and then at least 3 waste collections in the Migros ... that is complete nonsense.
It is also not the case that PET, PE, milk bottles, batteries, CDs, light bulbs, aluminum, paper, glass bottles and general waste is collected here, but PET, in Migros, PE and milk bottles not at all, batteries in a much too large container, CDs can be thrown into the PET in Migros, light bulbs cannot be disposed of, there is a container for aluminum and paper can be disposed of in a chute that is already too small for a shoe box. There is a chute for glass bottles ... but none for jars. There is also a second battery disposal point in Migros and sometimes a "bucket" for ink cartridges, which nobody really knows where and when it is available. It's all far too inconvenient.
There are also a few "waste bins" in the streets ... which are overflowing because people are afraid to dispose of their garbage in the garbage collection points if they don't use the right bag.
Everything looks completely over-organized and yet it's completely off track.
And Migros is constantly talking about its promises for the next generations ... while at the same time producing more and more complex packaging consisting of several materials. Much of this packaging only fulfills the "dream expectations" of the buyer and the alleged benefits are almost never used ... for example, flan cups with an aluminum adhesive on the bottom that can allow the flan to be tipped over ... but almost nobody does that anyway. Or Tetra packs with a plastic screw-on lid, which also makes it more difficult to transport the Tetra packs.
There are also packaging systems that have been "over-perfected" to such an extent that they are now extremely impractical.
You have to simplify everything and transform it into a system where the various packaging types also make recycling easier. And you can't focus on individual items, you have to link the whole system together.
