2. Recycle, Recycle, Recycle
Recycling into 8 yes I said 8 recycling bins, now I know we should be more eco-green friendly but THIS is ridiculous lemme explain bio or compost brown(egg shells, food remainders), plastic yellow(plastic packaging etc), paper blue(but not toilet paper waste or anything that may be toxic!), regular trash grey (all the leftovers that don’t go in the other ), metal products (alu foil etc), brown glass, green glass and white glass. Now in Germany it is “FORBIDDEN” ( I love that word, I hear that a LOT here!) to combine these products and not separate or even dare to put the wrong item in the wrong trash container…case in point, a screaming German neighbor will be ringing at your door yelling at you and screaming sweet nothings, pointing at the trash cans till she’s blue in the face, all the while you are saying “I don’t understand, ich verstelle nicht??” and shrugging your shoulders. No, you mustn’t let that happen to you, so you better do what my Austrian mother in law does which is take the foil lid off the used yogurt cup, place it in upper tray of dishwasher, rinse yogurt cup and place in second tray under the upper tray. Fill dishwasher with other dishes, wash, dry and place cleaned foil lid and container to appropriate recycling bins. Foil in metal bin, plastic in plastic bin etc..Now, time consuming?- yes, saving the world?- yes, pain in the freaking ass that I don’t want to cook? –definitely! Especially with the lack of any garbage disposals in the kitchen sink, you will be spending more time, discerning what food remnants go into which container, emptying the dish strainer many, many times while the sink gets clogged and don’t even get me started about where meat bones go into..