What to do with a load of rubbish
February is, perhaps, the ideal month for getting rid of unwanted Christmas presents. You have spent almost six weeks looking at the suit with sparkly cat design bought for you by a hopeful lover and now it’s time for some surreptitious early spring cleaning. While you probably won’t be able to appease the giver of ghastly gifts, you can at least ease your conscience by following these rules of garbage disposal.Whether you live in a house or an apartment, you should have access to three types of garbage containers (Mülltonnen). Blue paper bins (Altpapiertonnen) are for waste paper, such as newspapers, magazines, envelopes, school workbooks, books without their covers, packing paper (with any tape removed) and folded cardboard boxes. Certain types of paper, such as waxed or coated paper, post-it notes and carbon paper, should, however, go into the gray container. Telephone books go back to the post office.
The brown bin (Biotonne) is for organic waste, such as grass cuttings, twigs and branches, weeds and dead leaves, as well as uncooked food, except meat. Cut flowers, houseplants and small amounts of potting soil can also be dumped here. The third member of the garbage trio is the gray container (Restmülltonne), which is for all remaining waste, such as cooked left-overs, vacuum cleaner bags, wallpaper, small electrical appliances (minus batteries and accumulator), diapers and pet excrement.
If you have bulky items (Sperrmüll) to throw away, for instance furniture or large household appliances, they must go to a municipal dump (Wertstoffhof). These dumps also accept recyclable material (Wertstoff), such as glass, metal, wood, paper and toxic waste (Problemmüll), including batteries, gloss paints, varnishes and medication. There are 12 municipal dumps scattered across Munich. To find out where your nearest dump is, call Munich’s refuse Info-line at 233-3 1200.
Whether you decide to transport large items yourself or have them collected, remember that there is a limit to how much you can get rid of—2 cubic meters a day is the official amount, though this may be hard to judge—and there are certain items that are not accepted at the city dumps, such as carpet, wallpaper and very dirty recyclable material. If you wish to make use of the collection service (a minimum of € 25.56 per visit), this must be done in writing. Log onto www.awm.muenchen.de and click the following: first Infos für Haushalte , then Abholdienst für Sperrmüll and finally Anmeldeformular . For those who wish to transport their own bulky objects, please note that nothing will be accepted at a municipal dump without proof of residency in Munich.
Finally, there is the Green Dot system (Grüner Punkt ). Set up in 1990 and officially called the DSD (Duales System Deutschland), it is a nationwide public limited company that collects and recycles product packaging. Any packaging in your home that is marked with a dot in the shape of two small circular arrows (often colored green) can be taken to one of 1,200 container sites in Munich and deposited in the appropriate receptacle: plastic bags, yogurt containers and other plastic items go in the box marked Kunststoff , glass is sorted according to color. The system is financed by a small surcharge that is included in the price of the product. For more information on the DSD, visit www.gruener-punkt.de.
