44. Do Bringsch Es

Language Friday again. This is at the self-serve cafe at one of the Manor department stores. The customers bus their own tables, and are asked to sort cutlery and recyclables (PET = Polyethylene terephthalate).

25. Glass recycling point

This big container for glass sits behind the village shop. We have to separate by color: clear, green and brown.

Paper pick-up day in Baden

I've talked about paper pick-up in Villigen before (for recycling, see links below). We had our quarterly collection on the 16th. Last Saturday, I photographed a couple of the paper collectors in the nearby town of Baden.

By the way, I was asked to contribute (is there a nice sounding term similar to pro bono if the public good isn't necessarily involved?) to the Swiss edition of an online information service site for expats and I've decided to give it a go. My first piece is here: Altpapiersammlung: paper collection for recycling.

20080823 Paper pick-up day
20070224 Altpapiersammlung

20090523

Blackbird, camouflaged

After a long stretch of overcast skies, we finally got a break a couple of days ago. Of course I had to sieze the opportunity to get some photographs.

This blackbird was looking for sustenance in the compost heap near Volg (20080601 frisch und freundlich), the village shop. Note the orange and banana peels. Such tropical fruits were once so uncommon and dear in northern climes, now no one gives them a second thought. One day later this year, I'll tell you about the new tropical-greenhouse project in a place called Frutigen. There the warm ground water (100 liters a second, at 20°C) that flows out of an immense tunnel through the Alps is used as the primary heat source.

20090112

Another recyclables drop off point

We're about done with the various options available to us in Villigen for disposal of common unwanted material. PET (Wikipedia article) bottles and sundries can be dropped off at most grocery shops (including the small Volg we have right in the village, old post here.) Pictured above is the Coop (pronounced cope) supermarket in Würenlingen, just across the river Aare from us.

20080825

Recyclables drop off location

The Gemeindehaus (parish or town hall) I mentioned yesterday is also the local drop off point for a few other types of unwanted products.

The red container is for steel cans (the wheel is a crank to run a press that flattens the cylinders.) Aluminum - cans, foil, lids from yogurt and other containers - goes into the yellow. The green is for oil, both motor and cooking. The grey, I'll have to get back to you on the grey as I couldn't read the sign from outside the fence (it's locked up on Sundays.) Barely visible way in the back is a container for old clothes. These are supposed to be items that still have useful life in them.

Not pictured in this photo are the containers for glass, batteries, flourescent bulbs, Nespresso capsules (old post here), some sorts of building materials and styrofoam peanuts.

20080824

Paper pick-up day

Altpapiersammlung

Four times a year our paper is picked up for recycling. The various social groups in the village take turns to do the pick-up. Today the Freizeit Club (recreational club) performed this service. In this photo they're collecting the paper from the Gemeindehaus (parish hall).

A post from last year:
Altpapiersammlung

20080823

Recycling

There's a section for used Nespresso coffee capsules at our recycling "dump" at the Gemeindehaus. Here's a link to Nespresso's corporate website section on their recycling program. According to the company, remelting the aluminum from the used capsules uses just 5% of the energy that would be required in primary production.

An espresso machine is a staple at almost all restaurants here, regardless of the type of cuisine. And the range of coffee machines available for purchase is truly mind boggling to me (see some store aisle photos on my overflow site) and I haven't even attempted to buy a fancy one. We have a simple, old fashioned, stove-top model that works just fine most of the time, thank you very much.

If you drink coffee, what kind of machine do you have at home?

20070919

Altpapiersammlung (used paper pickup)

Our paper (for recycling) is picked up just four times a year. I suppose it's a testament to the relatively smaller amount of junk mail that we get that this actually works. Perhaps also fewer newspapers delivered to homes?

The pickup is organized through the various groups in town. Today's collection was done by the music group. The first lot picked up on one side (our side) of the street, while the second team was responsible for the other side. The two young men in the first group jumped up on top of the stacks of paper and one of them pulled out a cell/mobile phone as they drove away.

20070224