#4 A Little About Switzerland
There's very little chances you haven't heard about Switzerland. It's an incredibly beautiful country and a must have in your Europe tour package. It's got a plethora of green hills and rivers.
Apart from being beautiful, Switzerland is also extremely clean. As you can see in this picture, the streets are spick and span. Trashcans in this country never go unfed. It's not just that, the people here have a sense of responsibility for their own acts and that's why they do not litter. This is a rsult of impeccable waste management on part of the authorities.
But it wasn't always so perfect for the Swiss.
#3 The Crisis
1980s Switzerland found itself neck deep an ecological disaster. Their lakes and rivers were all contaminated with phosphates and nitrates, the earth was subjected to a lot of heavy metal exposure and to top it all off, the Swiss population was producing tons of waste by the hour. Something had to be done and that too fast.
The most effective way to combating the problem seemed to be waste segregation. It was implemented as a countrwide program. New norms were established and no exceptions were made - garbage was everyone's problem. Now if the Swiss citizen had to dispose a tea bag, the label went to the trashcan marked cardboard, the bag went to paper, the tea to the compost pit and the metal staple to the scrap metal dustbin. It sounds unreal but it isn't.
The result it produced was absolutely jaw dropping... Read ahead to see the result.
#2 The Result
The result was astounding. Today the Swiss recycle 70% of paper, 60% of electric batteries, 71% of plastic bottles, 90% of glass bottles, 70% of cans and 90% of aluminum cans. Those are some staggering statistics. But that's not all. They also recycle daylight lamps, vegetable oil, motor oil, composted material and expired meds. Another intriguing act is that you're not allowed to bury animal carcasses, you have to pay and have it done.
Effective implementation of such comprehensive rules made the Swiss what they are today - an example for the world to look up to.
#1 You Can Still Live By Your Own Rules
You can still throw garbage into trashcans but you wouldn't want to. A tax is collected for every pound of collected waste. A special stamp marks each plastic bag marking tax as paid. It costs 2 or 3 CHF to dispose of 5kg of junk. If you fail to pay the tax, the 'trash police' open up the bags and trace the garbage back to you. And then you end up paying 10,000 CHF instead as fines.
The countries of the world have a lot to learn from Switzerland. They do not need to learn policy making. Instead, they need to be like Swiss citizens - responsible. Rules can only do so much. If there is no mutual restraint amongst citizens, soon you're going to be using piles of garbage as pillows.
