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Swiss Watching trivia, No 14: Recycling

August 14, 2010, 1 Comment

Switzerland has more places to recycle plastic bottles than postboxes. No, honestly it does. There are 29,000 collection points for PET plastic bottles and only 20,000 postboxes. The Swiss really are champion recyclers. Last year 81% of all PET plastic (the type used for soft drink or mineral water bottles) came back, equalling 37,543 tonnes of the stuff, which was then converted into things like fleeces and egg cartons. The European average is only 48%, showing how eco-friendly the Swiss are – not forgetting their rates of 95% for glass and 91% for cans. And all with no recycling on Sundays. Except for the blue PET bins in train stations (pictured), bottle banks and recycling points in supermarkets are all closed on Sunday. Better go and do my recycling now; it’ll be verboten tomorrow. But are the Swiss really so ecological or is it because they have to pay for each bag of household rubbish? More recyling means less rubbish and fewer bin bags. Saving the planet + saving money = a very Swiss view of being green.

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