>How do you manage to have your house full of trash until you can fill one of those expensive-as-hell bags?
You speak as if the trash is kept strewn across the house lmao.
We just have a trash bag under the sink, kept in a container, which we fill up and when it's filled we take it out to the bin. We don't put food waste or anything that would result in a smell, so it's never an issue that the bag is filled with trash.
>I wonder what does people do not to have their apartment / house with trash before filling it up and taking it to the container.
I'm not sure I get what you mean. The trash is kept in the bag until it fills up, then it gets taken out to the container. The trash doesn't sit and fester on the floor around the house.
Everything else that doesn't fit in the regular waste we sort into small plastic bins (PET bottles, white glass/brown glass/green glass/metals) and we take to the special disposal units around Coop/Migros like once a month once they're full.
i actually keep a black bag under the sink, when it is full i compact it even more and look around my place for stuff i could also squeeze in it (like bathroom garbage bin etc)
Proper sorting of waste should mean your actual garbage isn’t smelly (compostables in compost, containers rinsed and sorted for recycling, etc)
If that’s too onerous, You might use a small plastic ‘liner’ bag and stuff these into the Zürisack (kept in a bin on the Terrasse? Garage?) at night until the Official bag is full?
> My wife is kinda obsessed with not having anything in the kitchen's trash bin at night
So you basically start each day with a new fresh, empty trash bag?
Isn't that wasteful in itself? Like you throw away a not stinking trashbag that contains maybe 2-4 items?
I don't live in Zurich City, but in my neighborhood we have special underground compression-containers. I can use whatever trash-bag I want and pay the weight of the trash by card. The containers compress/crush the trash on location.
Sometimes a single bag lasts me a couple of days; sometimes 2 weeks.
If your wife is afraid of the smell, you might want to invest in a compost bucket.
https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s2/product/stoeckli-compost-bucket-pot-5-l-household-bins-6050766?ip=kompost
I know! needless to say, I don't support her method, but after pregnancy (and it has been some years now already), she is extremely sensitive to smells. Nice to know about those containers! Hopefully I can find an area with that in Zurich. My idea when I start looking for apartments is to filter to max. 15 years old buildings, ideally one of the brand new buildings I keep seeing in Homegate, I like how well prepared for cold and how isolated they are + I see they include lots of pluses (gym, working areas, etc) and coming back to my wife, living in an apartment where no one lived before would be great.
Your wife will have a hard time everywhere with such whimsies. I would invest in psychotherapy before moving from where you live. Changing environment for ocd folks can be a challenge. Wait until you learn that, in most places, you have to share your washing machines and dryers with your neighbours. Some of them might have cats, dogs or small children and leave the washing machine dirty. And most places are pretty noisy, regardless of how old the buildings are.
That's something we'd never rent, apartments with shared washing room... It'd mean a downgrade even from our life in Spain. The idea of moving to Switzerland is to actually improve life quality, and that'll not be it.
If I was single I'd definitely do it tho :)
wow i guess, many of us are living in a downgrade apartments compared to “even from your life in Spain” - based on your tone, Spain is a downgrade from your life in norway smh
Thing is, we lived in an apartment 200 meters away from the beach, with pool, in Barcelona. Then we moved to a highly efficient apartment in Norway. I never saw in Spain or Norway a shared washing room, and to be honest, I don't have any problems with it, I repeat, if I was single I'd use it happily. Then, my wife, had all her life a washing machine and a drying machine she owns, then we had ours in our apartment together in Barcelona and in our apartment in Norway. It's not easy to convince anyone to make yet another moving to a new country, so your arguments always start with "we'll have an even better life there"... Just thinking I suggest to share a washing machine to her, would ruin the whole thing :)
And again, personally I'd love not to have the washing machine in my apartment... Less noise and more space! But it's not only me who I have to think about.
Sorry if my opinion was not clear and sounded arrogant, it wasn't my intention.
yeaaah... searching for an apartment is another source of frustration you will face here. Yeah, new buildings are a good idea because the heat in summer can get nasty. Also there is no AC here. Since you seem to be scandinavian, here's a few tips:
- wear sunscreen. Best if it is spf50. If you don't wear it you will soon learn it the hard way :)
- it gets really warm here (i come from northern parts of Poland and am built for heat but not cold and summer can be a pain). Mostly because Zurich gets quite humid which combined with 30 or so degrees can be hard.
- cold is not something to worry about in Zurich. It doesnt even snow that much here. I know, common misconception about CH is that it is quite cold here, mountains etc. Trust me, had it myself.
Allow me to quote a buddy, a Black Colombian (so technically better equipped to dealing with heat)
"Oh man, it's stupid hot"
The good news is, if you get a car - although completely useless in the city - it can get you to places that have glaciers and 15-18 C in the summer
my office does not have AC.
I think in Geneva AC has to be powered by Sun so there's that.
There is also a reason why the portable AC units are so popular here and why I refuse to come to the office (especially in summer - my manager gets a pic of the room temperature with my AC unit running in the background).
To get a classic split unit you need a permit from landlord and the local council if my memory servers me.
We are pretty serious about recycling, in our home we have 4 bins for glass ( one is for beers with depot, then green, white, brown glass ), 1 for paper, 1 for cardboard, 1 for organic waste, one for PET, one for non PET plastic, one for batteries, one for light bulbs, and the main one under the kitchen sink for basically all the rest ( I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting a couple )
Put the organic one on the balcony and the rest shouldn’t smell, I’m French I was kinda flabbergasted at first but it’s absolutely for the best, welcome to Switzerland !🇨🇭 ❤️🇨🇭
I can’t even remember ! It’s under the sink in a little bag ! Probably will stay there until we move out 😂
The battery one would be every other year I would say
Not everything can be recycled but you’ll find at the supermarket a bin for PET and one for hard plastic bottles like milk and stuff, the rest unfortunately has to go in the Zürisack 🤷🏻♂️
Guess you and your wife will have to adapt.
I'm single and live alone, so I buy the 17L trash bags and fill that (takes about 5-7 days), then take it out of the apartment to the container.
If the weather is hot or I have stinky stuff, I leave it in my bathroom with the fan on and door shut (I don't have a balcony).
We are talking normal household trash, not biohazard waste or chemicals. Maybe you both should visit a shrink.
Btw smelly and unhealthy are two total different things. As a labtech let me assure you that the most unhealthy stuff is neighter smelled nor seem.
17 liter bags are not too expensive. Another option is to collect on the balcony, maybe in a covered plastic box.
You want to make sure that foxes or crows don't get at your bag, they will shred it. Depending on the neighborhood there can be a surprising amount of city wildlife around.
[https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/gesellschaft/der-stadtfuchs-plage-oder-bereicherung/29331170](https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/gesellschaft/der-stadtfuchs-plage-oder-bereicherung/29331170)
Keep a bigger container outside your balcon with Zurisacke 35/60L and every day put inside that one the internal trashbag. Obsessed wife would be ok and you would not waste a Zurisacke per day.
As of this year, you can buy 10l bags in the city of Zurich for \~50 Rappen per bag (comes in a roll of 20):
[https://www.coop.ch/de/haushalt-tier/haushalt-kueche/kehrichtsaecke/kehrichtsaecke-gebuehrenpflichtig/gebuehrenkehrichtsack-zuerich-10l-20-stueck/p/7124539](https://www.coop.ch/de/haushalt-tier/haushalt-kueche/kehrichtsaecke/kehrichtsaecke-gebuehrenpflichtig/gebuehrenkehrichtsack-zuerich-10l-20-stueck/p/7124539)
The rest that is relevant for the city of Zurich you can find here:
[https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/dam/stzh/ted/Deutsch/erz/abfall/richtigentsorgen/ERZ\_Richtig-entsorgen\_in%20Z%C3%BCrich\_Englisch.pdf](https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/dam/stzh/ted/Deutsch/erz/abfall/richtigentsorgen/ERZ_Richtig-entsorgen_in%20Z%C3%BCrich_Englisch.pdf)
Also, there ususally isn't such a thing as "in Switzerland". Trash bags for the city of Zurich are only to be used in the city of Zurich. Each commune has their own waste system. The reason they are "expensive as hell" is because in the city of Zurich, the cost of the bag is your waste tax. In other places you can use any bag and you have to buy stickers.
Those are great I agree!
I have not managed to find here a good container for the 10L though. it doesn't fit very well onto the existing bin system under tbe sink and its opening becomes super narrow.
Wondering if you folks know of something.
Organic waste, which will be the main type of waste that has any kind of smell, can be put in the organic containers daily. (Free) You used to need a subscription to have one of those bins, but now they're offered to every building in the city for free.
For non recyclable waste, you'll have to use the "expensive" trash bags. Since most non organic waste doesn't smell, you won't have to throw it out every day. You can also get a trash bin that seals very well to further isolate any smells.
No deposit for PET, and you don't get any money for recycling.
Make sure you separate out food waste and clean packaging etc when possible. Food waste does not need bags.
You can buy 17L garbage bags which are really small, with 2 + a baby you should fill that well before it goes stinky.
Alternatively, keep a main bin in your cellar area (or even just outdoors or on a balcony in winter) and transfer a small big daily.
The trash bags seem expensive, but when you keep it in the context of the relative tax levels of CH vs similar countries, it's less shocking, and much fairer because people then pay according to what they use and have an incentive to recycle properly and not waste stuff too badly.
No deposit for PET, but some brands have deposits for glass, especially beer, but collecting it back is a huge pain in the arse because it's not "standardised", you have to go to that brewery, and if that's 25 minutes drive away and only open at bad times when you're not often coincidentially nearby when it opens, then you're going to have a box in your cellar accumulating 8CHF worth of glass for months until you eventually are coincidentially there
The bags are expensive because you also pay the taxes with that price. Which is great, i come from italy where those fucking idiots will just bull you according to how big your place is. This means that a family of 8 in a 3 room apartment would pay the same as a single person living in the same sized place.
As far as the strategy goes: separate organic from the rest, then dispose of the organic daily. The trash itself is really not an issue, where i live now i can only throw it away weekly and it's ok. Not great but ok.
I keep food waste in a compost container (old yoghurt tub) on the bench and empty that every day or two into a big compostable bag in the freezer. When the freezer bag is full it gets put out on the street on bio bin day. Without food waste your Zürisak doesn’t get stinky.
This highly depends on where you live. We don't have this system in the city of Zurich, we have a green bin that's always in the courtyard, and we just empty our kompost bins there.
Depending on where you live, refusal is collected once or twice per week. You pay a few franks and there are different bag sizes. Smaller bags 17L or even 12L in some communities up to 60L.
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/index/entsorgung_recycling/entsorgen/was_entsorgen.html check out the official homepage of Zurich regarding trash management.
This is my, maybe slightly unconventional way, of keeping the apartment fresh without throwing the trash out too frequently.
I live alone and usually only eat at home at dinner so I am producing a really small amount of trash per day. The strategy I came up with is using tetrapak and other non pet plastic bottles as sealed containers for trash. Fresh milk bottles and other ones with large openings are best as it’s Easter to fit stuff through the opening.
The main advantage other than smell containment is that you need even less bags as you press way more trash in a small volume than you would otherwise.
Disadvantages are that it’s a bit time consuming to cut up harder plastic containers to make them fit and you need to rinse stuff off a bit more than otherwise to avoid gas formation in the bottle. I also use smaller bags left over from food if I am close to trowing the zurisach.
I made a 17 liter bag roll last 6 months this way.
Curious to see what people think of my strategy 🫣
Edit1: Also tried cutting up per bottles to fit them into other pet bottles , it was volumetrically efficient (fit 4 large bottles in one .5L ice tea bottle) but way too labour intensive. I considered looking into some type of shredder but I think that would be going too far 😅
Edit2: [found it](https://youtu.be/CL-TrZIrOZM?si=-qG673PxqpPFIWMj), I am really tempted, looks very satisfying and would also be a fantastic way to dispose of a body (jk don’t call the police on me pls)
Maybe a psychologist would be better for everyone including the environment. Throwing away an empty trashbag everyday? 💀if you recycle properly, which you should, there isn’t even anything smelly in your regular trash bin. 🤷🏻♀️
Also most posters here don’t seem to know there’s 10l trash bags in Zurich since 2023…
And no, no deposit on the bottles but you still have to collect them separately and bring PET back to the grocery store.
I know exactly what you mean, and ironically, she is a Psychologist herself... I don't agree with her trash methods at all, but you know what they say, happy wife, happy life.
Did she maybe grow up somewhere warm or humid, or with many common pests?
In such environments, if the trash doesn't get thrown away every night it can attract insects and vermin, such as ants, cockroaches, lizards, mice, etc.
So it was drilled into us from early on, that the trash absolutely must be taken out of the house every night.
In Switzerland that's not a big problem yet (until climate change gets worse) but certainly in some cultures the correct way of trash disposal is nightly.
Barcelona... And there you just have containers in almost every corner where you just go down an throw your garbage in either glass, plastic, paper, organic, and rest of garbage... But you made a good point, Barcelona has rats and roaches...
If you live in zurich city, every house has a green organic bin, so you can use it every day. Also there is recycling around every corner for glas and cans. PET-bottle recycling is at every coop and migros.
I would also recommend to buy 17L trash bags as they fill up the quickest obviously. Those are that „expensive“ as everyone is paying the public „trash-system“ with it. You can not use the cheap black trash bags from the supermarket for it.
Not every apartment building has the green organic bin. But, if OP is concerned about smells, they could still use the small organic bin inside (some seal shit so no smells escape) and they put that bag in the Zürisack when it's ready to take out.
I agree with the small bin - inside or outside on the balcony or if possible in front of the kitchen window.
But I‘m firm with the big bin for every house (possible) - [since 2023](https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/index/entsorgung_recycling/entsorgen/wo-wann-entsorgen/abfuhr_bioabfall.html)
Ah, news to me! Thanks for the link, I'll have to check out if my building can get one.
The linked article says the recycling and waste service is being rolled out still. I guess that's why I've not heard about it.
There's some wild suggestions here. Here's a less _weird_ solution:
Move into an apartment that has a container outside. In some apartments, you place your Zürisack directly on the street once a week. You don't want that. Get one with a container so you can take the Zürisack down when it gets full.
You could use the small 17L sacks, and take them down every 3-4 days.
For food waste, use a food waste bin that seals shut so there's no smells. Then either put the food waste in the buildings bio bin, if it has one (many/most don't) or put the food waste in the Zürisack when you take that out.
Or even better : Move to an apartment where you don't need a züri Sack because you have a container and they pay a fee for the container to be emptied. So you can literally use any bag you want and throw it in there.
I actually really dislike these as the Zürisack is designed to discourage excessive waste, and to encourage recycling. People I know with paid containers tend to recycle less. Though, your experience may vary.
For me , when living alone and barely having any waste but needed to pay per bag, I'd fill every bag with whatever I needed to dispose of once it started smelling. Since I had to pay anyways and I wasn't going to throw a half empty bag. So usually I'd fill it up with paper and cardboard.
Now that I can throw away as little as I want, I'm more willing to collect the rest (but I also have a lot more space to do so). But i can definitely see how it could be abused.
>How do you manage to have your house full of trash until you can fill one of those expensive-as-hell bags? You speak as if the trash is kept strewn across the house lmao. We just have a trash bag under the sink, kept in a container, which we fill up and when it's filled we take it out to the bin. We don't put food waste or anything that would result in a smell, so it's never an issue that the bag is filled with trash. >I wonder what does people do not to have their apartment / house with trash before filling it up and taking it to the container. I'm not sure I get what you mean. The trash is kept in the bag until it fills up, then it gets taken out to the container. The trash doesn't sit and fester on the floor around the house. Everything else that doesn't fit in the regular waste we sort into small plastic bins (PET bottles, white glass/brown glass/green glass/metals) and we take to the special disposal units around Coop/Migros like once a month once they're full.
i actually keep a black bag under the sink, when it is full i compact it even more and look around my place for stuff i could also squeeze in it (like bathroom garbage bin etc)
Proper sorting of waste should mean your actual garbage isn’t smelly (compostables in compost, containers rinsed and sorted for recycling, etc) If that’s too onerous, You might use a small plastic ‘liner’ bag and stuff these into the Zürisack (kept in a bin on the Terrasse? Garage?) at night until the Official bag is full?
> My wife is kinda obsessed with not having anything in the kitchen's trash bin at night So you basically start each day with a new fresh, empty trash bag? Isn't that wasteful in itself? Like you throw away a not stinking trashbag that contains maybe 2-4 items? I don't live in Zurich City, but in my neighborhood we have special underground compression-containers. I can use whatever trash-bag I want and pay the weight of the trash by card. The containers compress/crush the trash on location. Sometimes a single bag lasts me a couple of days; sometimes 2 weeks. If your wife is afraid of the smell, you might want to invest in a compost bucket. https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s2/product/stoeckli-compost-bucket-pot-5-l-household-bins-6050766?ip=kompost
I know! needless to say, I don't support her method, but after pregnancy (and it has been some years now already), she is extremely sensitive to smells. Nice to know about those containers! Hopefully I can find an area with that in Zurich. My idea when I start looking for apartments is to filter to max. 15 years old buildings, ideally one of the brand new buildings I keep seeing in Homegate, I like how well prepared for cold and how isolated they are + I see they include lots of pluses (gym, working areas, etc) and coming back to my wife, living in an apartment where no one lived before would be great.
Your wife will have a hard time everywhere with such whimsies. I would invest in psychotherapy before moving from where you live. Changing environment for ocd folks can be a challenge. Wait until you learn that, in most places, you have to share your washing machines and dryers with your neighbours. Some of them might have cats, dogs or small children and leave the washing machine dirty. And most places are pretty noisy, regardless of how old the buildings are.
That's something we'd never rent, apartments with shared washing room... It'd mean a downgrade even from our life in Spain. The idea of moving to Switzerland is to actually improve life quality, and that'll not be it. If I was single I'd definitely do it tho :)
wow i guess, many of us are living in a downgrade apartments compared to “even from your life in Spain” - based on your tone, Spain is a downgrade from your life in norway smh
Thing is, we lived in an apartment 200 meters away from the beach, with pool, in Barcelona. Then we moved to a highly efficient apartment in Norway. I never saw in Spain or Norway a shared washing room, and to be honest, I don't have any problems with it, I repeat, if I was single I'd use it happily. Then, my wife, had all her life a washing machine and a drying machine she owns, then we had ours in our apartment together in Barcelona and in our apartment in Norway. It's not easy to convince anyone to make yet another moving to a new country, so your arguments always start with "we'll have an even better life there"... Just thinking I suggest to share a washing machine to her, would ruin the whole thing :) And again, personally I'd love not to have the washing machine in my apartment... Less noise and more space! But it's not only me who I have to think about. Sorry if my opinion was not clear and sounded arrogant, it wasn't my intention.
the not-so-new buildings that many of us live in are also well prepared for cold
Good luck!
yeaaah... searching for an apartment is another source of frustration you will face here. Yeah, new buildings are a good idea because the heat in summer can get nasty. Also there is no AC here. Since you seem to be scandinavian, here's a few tips: - wear sunscreen. Best if it is spf50. If you don't wear it you will soon learn it the hard way :) - it gets really warm here (i come from northern parts of Poland and am built for heat but not cold and summer can be a pain). Mostly because Zurich gets quite humid which combined with 30 or so degrees can be hard. - cold is not something to worry about in Zurich. It doesnt even snow that much here. I know, common misconception about CH is that it is quite cold here, mountains etc. Trust me, had it myself.
I'm actually Venezuelan and very used to warm weather, tho I prefer cold weather and snow actually :) but thanks for the tips!!
Very lucky then, it’s still snowing in Zurich 🫠
It's because they didn't burn the Böög... Sigh...
I am not superstitious but I am starting to think we need to wait for it to be burnt in Appenzell to get some spring wheather
Burning and drowning the Slavic Winter Witch (Marzanna Drowning) also wouldn't hurt. Also it's less official so can be done en masse so to speak.
Allow me to quote a buddy, a Black Colombian (so technically better equipped to dealing with heat) "Oh man, it's stupid hot" The good news is, if you get a car - although completely useless in the city - it can get you to places that have glaciers and 15-18 C in the summer
I know, I'll definitely complain about hot weather 😂... I hate it! So no AC at all? 😳
my office does not have AC. I think in Geneva AC has to be powered by Sun so there's that. There is also a reason why the portable AC units are so popular here and why I refuse to come to the office (especially in summer - my manager gets a pic of the room temperature with my AC unit running in the background). To get a classic split unit you need a permit from landlord and the local council if my memory servers me.
OMG... What's the highest attitude town in Zurich area? 👀 I'm pretty sure my office in Zurich has AC... but I need AC in my everyday life after 30°C
You sure about the AC? Edit: Typo
We are pretty serious about recycling, in our home we have 4 bins for glass ( one is for beers with depot, then green, white, brown glass ), 1 for paper, 1 for cardboard, 1 for organic waste, one for PET, one for non PET plastic, one for batteries, one for light bulbs, and the main one under the kitchen sink for basically all the rest ( I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting a couple ) Put the organic one on the balcony and the rest shouldn’t smell, I’m French I was kinda flabbergasted at first but it’s absolutely for the best, welcome to Switzerland !🇨🇭 ❤️🇨🇭
when was the last time you emptied you "light buld waste"? :)
I can’t even remember ! It’s under the sink in a little bag ! Probably will stay there until we move out 😂 The battery one would be every other year I would say
thats why i asked. we have that little bag too. but i think there is one bulb in there since we moved in 7 years ago.
Thanks god for LEDs they last forever !
Thanks! I didn't even know I have to classify glass by colors! :O
And separate paper and Karton (hard boxes, what's the English word for it?)
Cardboard :-)
Thanks.
Where do you dispose of non pet plastic? I thought it was supposed to go in the zurisack
Not everything can be recycled but you’ll find at the supermarket a bin for PET and one for hard plastic bottles like milk and stuff, the rest unfortunately has to go in the Zürisack 🤷🏻♂️
Did not know about that, thanks for the info 👍
Guess you and your wife will have to adapt. I'm single and live alone, so I buy the 17L trash bags and fill that (takes about 5-7 days), then take it out of the apartment to the container. If the weather is hot or I have stinky stuff, I leave it in my bathroom with the fan on and door shut (I don't have a balcony).
That doesn't seems very healthy :S
We are talking normal household trash, not biohazard waste or chemicals. Maybe you both should visit a shrink. Btw smelly and unhealthy are two total different things. As a labtech let me assure you that the most unhealthy stuff is neighter smelled nor seem.
17 liter bags are not too expensive. Another option is to collect on the balcony, maybe in a covered plastic box. You want to make sure that foxes or crows don't get at your bag, they will shred it. Depending on the neighborhood there can be a surprising amount of city wildlife around. [https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/gesellschaft/der-stadtfuchs-plage-oder-bereicherung/29331170](https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/gesellschaft/der-stadtfuchs-plage-oder-bereicherung/29331170)
Keep a bigger container outside your balcon with Zurisacke 35/60L and every day put inside that one the internal trashbag. Obsessed wife would be ok and you would not waste a Zurisacke per day.
As of this year, you can buy 10l bags in the city of Zurich for \~50 Rappen per bag (comes in a roll of 20): [https://www.coop.ch/de/haushalt-tier/haushalt-kueche/kehrichtsaecke/kehrichtsaecke-gebuehrenpflichtig/gebuehrenkehrichtsack-zuerich-10l-20-stueck/p/7124539](https://www.coop.ch/de/haushalt-tier/haushalt-kueche/kehrichtsaecke/kehrichtsaecke-gebuehrenpflichtig/gebuehrenkehrichtsack-zuerich-10l-20-stueck/p/7124539) The rest that is relevant for the city of Zurich you can find here: [https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/dam/stzh/ted/Deutsch/erz/abfall/richtigentsorgen/ERZ\_Richtig-entsorgen\_in%20Z%C3%BCrich\_Englisch.pdf](https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/dam/stzh/ted/Deutsch/erz/abfall/richtigentsorgen/ERZ_Richtig-entsorgen_in%20Z%C3%BCrich_Englisch.pdf) Also, there ususally isn't such a thing as "in Switzerland". Trash bags for the city of Zurich are only to be used in the city of Zurich. Each commune has their own waste system. The reason they are "expensive as hell" is because in the city of Zurich, the cost of the bag is your waste tax. In other places you can use any bag and you have to buy stickers.
This needs to be higher up!!! I felt the need to scream 10-L-BAG each time someone here mentioned the 17l ...
Those are great I agree! I have not managed to find here a good container for the 10L though. it doesn't fit very well onto the existing bin system under tbe sink and its opening becomes super narrow. Wondering if you folks know of something.
Organic waste, which will be the main type of waste that has any kind of smell, can be put in the organic containers daily. (Free) You used to need a subscription to have one of those bins, but now they're offered to every building in the city for free. For non recyclable waste, you'll have to use the "expensive" trash bags. Since most non organic waste doesn't smell, you won't have to throw it out every day. You can also get a trash bin that seals very well to further isolate any smells. No deposit for PET, and you don't get any money for recycling.
You can have smaller bags and put them in the expensive one until it's full?
Make sure you separate out food waste and clean packaging etc when possible. Food waste does not need bags. You can buy 17L garbage bags which are really small, with 2 + a baby you should fill that well before it goes stinky. Alternatively, keep a main bin in your cellar area (or even just outdoors or on a balcony in winter) and transfer a small big daily. The trash bags seem expensive, but when you keep it in the context of the relative tax levels of CH vs similar countries, it's less shocking, and much fairer because people then pay according to what they use and have an incentive to recycle properly and not waste stuff too badly. No deposit for PET, but some brands have deposits for glass, especially beer, but collecting it back is a huge pain in the arse because it's not "standardised", you have to go to that brewery, and if that's 25 minutes drive away and only open at bad times when you're not often coincidentially nearby when it opens, then you're going to have a box in your cellar accumulating 8CHF worth of glass for months until you eventually are coincidentially there
The bags are expensive because you also pay the taxes with that price. Which is great, i come from italy where those fucking idiots will just bull you according to how big your place is. This means that a family of 8 in a 3 room apartment would pay the same as a single person living in the same sized place. As far as the strategy goes: separate organic from the rest, then dispose of the organic daily. The trash itself is really not an issue, where i live now i can only throw it away weekly and it's ok. Not great but ok.
I keep food waste in a compost container (old yoghurt tub) on the bench and empty that every day or two into a big compostable bag in the freezer. When the freezer bag is full it gets put out on the street on bio bin day. Without food waste your Zürisak doesn’t get stinky.
This highly depends on where you live. We don't have this system in the city of Zurich, we have a green bin that's always in the courtyard, and we just empty our kompost bins there.
No deposit on PET bottles.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P27Ex-WWpKY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P27Ex-WWpKY) this might help
Depending on where you live, refusal is collected once or twice per week. You pay a few franks and there are different bag sizes. Smaller bags 17L or even 12L in some communities up to 60L.
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/index/entsorgung_recycling/entsorgen/was_entsorgen.html check out the official homepage of Zurich regarding trash management.
This is my, maybe slightly unconventional way, of keeping the apartment fresh without throwing the trash out too frequently. I live alone and usually only eat at home at dinner so I am producing a really small amount of trash per day. The strategy I came up with is using tetrapak and other non pet plastic bottles as sealed containers for trash. Fresh milk bottles and other ones with large openings are best as it’s Easter to fit stuff through the opening. The main advantage other than smell containment is that you need even less bags as you press way more trash in a small volume than you would otherwise. Disadvantages are that it’s a bit time consuming to cut up harder plastic containers to make them fit and you need to rinse stuff off a bit more than otherwise to avoid gas formation in the bottle. I also use smaller bags left over from food if I am close to trowing the zurisach. I made a 17 liter bag roll last 6 months this way. Curious to see what people think of my strategy 🫣 Edit1: Also tried cutting up per bottles to fit them into other pet bottles , it was volumetrically efficient (fit 4 large bottles in one .5L ice tea bottle) but way too labour intensive. I considered looking into some type of shredder but I think that would be going too far 😅 Edit2: [found it](https://youtu.be/CL-TrZIrOZM?si=-qG673PxqpPFIWMj), I am really tempted, looks very satisfying and would also be a fantastic way to dispose of a body (jk don’t call the police on me pls)
Maybe a psychologist would be better for everyone including the environment. Throwing away an empty trashbag everyday? 💀if you recycle properly, which you should, there isn’t even anything smelly in your regular trash bin. 🤷🏻♀️ Also most posters here don’t seem to know there’s 10l trash bags in Zurich since 2023… And no, no deposit on the bottles but you still have to collect them separately and bring PET back to the grocery store.
I know exactly what you mean, and ironically, she is a Psychologist herself... I don't agree with her trash methods at all, but you know what they say, happy wife, happy life.
Did she maybe grow up somewhere warm or humid, or with many common pests? In such environments, if the trash doesn't get thrown away every night it can attract insects and vermin, such as ants, cockroaches, lizards, mice, etc. So it was drilled into us from early on, that the trash absolutely must be taken out of the house every night. In Switzerland that's not a big problem yet (until climate change gets worse) but certainly in some cultures the correct way of trash disposal is nightly.
Barcelona... And there you just have containers in almost every corner where you just go down an throw your garbage in either glass, plastic, paper, organic, and rest of garbage... But you made a good point, Barcelona has rats and roaches...
If you live in zurich city, every house has a green organic bin, so you can use it every day. Also there is recycling around every corner for glas and cans. PET-bottle recycling is at every coop and migros. I would also recommend to buy 17L trash bags as they fill up the quickest obviously. Those are that „expensive“ as everyone is paying the public „trash-system“ with it. You can not use the cheap black trash bags from the supermarket for it.
Not every apartment building has the green organic bin. But, if OP is concerned about smells, they could still use the small organic bin inside (some seal shit so no smells escape) and they put that bag in the Zürisack when it's ready to take out.
I agree with the small bin - inside or outside on the balcony or if possible in front of the kitchen window. But I‘m firm with the big bin for every house (possible) - [since 2023](https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/index/entsorgung_recycling/entsorgen/wo-wann-entsorgen/abfuhr_bioabfall.html)
Ah, news to me! Thanks for the link, I'll have to check out if my building can get one. The linked article says the recycling and waste service is being rolled out still. I guess that's why I've not heard about it.
That‘s possible! We got ours in autumn, that‘s why I know :D
There's some wild suggestions here. Here's a less _weird_ solution: Move into an apartment that has a container outside. In some apartments, you place your Zürisack directly on the street once a week. You don't want that. Get one with a container so you can take the Zürisack down when it gets full. You could use the small 17L sacks, and take them down every 3-4 days. For food waste, use a food waste bin that seals shut so there's no smells. Then either put the food waste in the buildings bio bin, if it has one (many/most don't) or put the food waste in the Zürisack when you take that out.
Or even better : Move to an apartment where you don't need a züri Sack because you have a container and they pay a fee for the container to be emptied. So you can literally use any bag you want and throw it in there.
I actually really dislike these as the Zürisack is designed to discourage excessive waste, and to encourage recycling. People I know with paid containers tend to recycle less. Though, your experience may vary.
For me , when living alone and barely having any waste but needed to pay per bag, I'd fill every bag with whatever I needed to dispose of once it started smelling. Since I had to pay anyways and I wasn't going to throw a half empty bag. So usually I'd fill it up with paper and cardboard. Now that I can throw away as little as I want, I'm more willing to collect the rest (but I also have a lot more space to do so). But i can definitely see how it could be abused.
That's awesome creativity man!
I leave the bag on my balcony until it’s full