My family and I stayed for a week in Lausanne, Switzerland, in a rented apartment. So we had to find out how to dispose of waste to comply with local rules and avoid fines. We had heard that in civilized countries, education comes through hefty fines, and presumably, their enforcement. But that’s another discussion.

That’s how we learned that, in addition to what we did back home in Romania, we also had to separately dispose of biodegradable waste. This is what Romania's compost law will also require once it's implemented, as it currently lacks specific regulations.

And since I knew there were many discussions about what goes into compost and what doesn't, I was curious as to what authorities accept for industrial composting. It’s worth noting that things might be slightly different in other cities, as Switzerland is divided into cantons, which operate quite independently and can set their own rules.

Photo source: www.lausanne.ch/Trier, des petits gestes pour de grands effets

The drawing is clear. The following items go into the organic waste bin:

Fruit and vegetable peels, including nut shells, citrus and banana peels

Eggshells

Tea bags (paper)

Coffee grounds

Grass, plants, and dried leaves

Fish bones and meat bones, cooked or raw

Seashells

Food scraps (I deduce)

Grease/lard doesn't appear in the drawing. But from reliable sources, i.e., the authorities, I know: if it's a thin layer, you wipe it with a napkin and throw it in the household waste. If it's a layer thicker than two centimeters, you put it separately in a jar, just like used oil, and take it to specially designated collection points around the city.

That compostable and biodegradable bag in the picture, for vegetable scraps, isn't free; you buy it at the supermarket. In fact, you also pay for household waste bags, and they are quite expensive. Four francs a bag. This is essentially how authorities charge for waste disposal. The more you throw away, the more you pay, because you'll need more bags. The more indiscriminately you fill the bag without compacting, the more you pay, because you'll need, again, more bags. Not much information and education is needed in this area; it hits you in the wallet.

Let's think about how it would be if such a method were applied in Romania! For example, I pay 34 lei for waste per month. During that time, I throw away at least 5-6 bags, I'd say. But now I realize I don't think I've ever counted them very rigorously. Seriously, have you ever counted how many household waste bags you throw away monthly? In my case, if I had to pay 20 lei per bag, it would mean paying 100-120 lei for household waste. If we were also forced to pay such fees, wouldn't we value the bags we throw away more? And what we throw away and what we reuse. And what we buy and what we don't. And so on...

What goes into household waste?

Returning to the Swiss, what do they actually throw into household waste? What do they fill those bags with? Well... with everything that isn't recyclable. And everything that doesn't go to biogas and compost. That means anything else apart from PETs and large plastic detergent containers, paper and cardboard, glass, aluminum, and biodegradable waste.

Interestingly, they also throw all the packaging that we throw away as plastic into household waste, hoping it will be recycled. Even if, in Romania, once it reaches the sorting stations, at least 25% of the packaging still ends up being incinerated, we still make this effort. Those of us who do, of course. For the Swiss, people don't even bother. Chip bags, Tetra Pak milk cartons, single-use plastic containers from catering, all go directly into household waste.

Photo source: www.lausanne.ch/Trier, des petits gestes pour de grands effets

Is this method better? Compared to how it’s done here? Where at least some sort of separation is attempted? But maybe more energy is lost, more resources are consumed? I don't know. I haven't seen any impact study showing which option is better. But I have seen Switzerland's municipal waste recycling rate. 52.8%, according to official data from 2020. That's above the European average. And above Romania's recycling rate, of course, which is only 13.7%.

So, they do something better than us. Whether it's this separation method, or many other rules, controls, fines that happen simultaneously, one thing is certain. The separate collection of organic waste from the rest of the garbage must happen urgently in Romania too. For the simple reason that these fruit and vegetable scraps represent 60% of all the waste we produce. And if not processed this way, they end up in landfills, where they only release toxic gases into the atmosphere. Only by implementing this measure will we be able to increase our chances of achieving our recycling targets, namely 55% by 2025.

The Swiss are also human

However, don't think that everything is perfect in Switzerland. At least not in the area where I was. Which is the French part of the country and is considered less educated, where rules are not as strict as in the German part. Or they are equally strict, but perhaps the control is not the same, and therefore, the collective behavior is not as civilized.

Even there, I saw biodegradable waste put in plastic bags, tied up, in the bin. Which is forbidden. But I must admit that this seemed to be the exception, not the rule.

What I mean is that people are people, wherever you go. And I don’t want you to leave with the feeling that we Romanians discard things haphazardly because we are more insensitive or foolish than others. I, at least, don’t believe that and I’m not trying to convey that. Probably the Swiss and any other nation would do the same as us if they didn’t have the infrastructure they already have, if they didn't have large fines, high waste taxes, controls, and if they weren't informed periodically by mail about how to sort waste.

When was the last time your city hall informed you how to dispose of waste?