First of all, waste is color-coded. Every self-respecting Brussels resident has at least three trash cans. A yellow one for paper, a blue one for plastic and tetrapacks, a white one for non-sorted waste. If you have a garden, you can add a green one to these, for organic waste. Glass goes into huge containers you can find at every street corner.
(I'm a total loser, I only have two. But I'll get the blue one soon. I promise.)
I know this now, but it was so confusing at first that I had to ask a young mother at the supermarket to help me pick out the trash bags. She was thrown by my question, a second later she was blushing, nervously avoiding my gaze and mumbling something about being a terrible citizen who doesn't recycle. She gave me a quick explanation, smiled apologetically and walked away as her little girl, with her high-pitched voice and imploring look, demanded to know why they didn't recycle. Yeah. They're dead serious about this.
They make it easy, though. If, like me when I moved in, you have a bunch of cardboard boxes you need to get rid of, you can leave them outside to be collected with the rest of the trash on a night I like to call Recycling Night (Tuesdays in my street). But do make sure it's only cardboard and paper. If they find anything non-papery in your boxes (like plastic), they WILL shame you by leaving them on your portion of sidewalk. You WILL get lectured by your neighbors AND you'll have to hang on to them for another week. Serves you right for coming from an environmentally retarded country.
It doesn't stop there. If you choose to pay extra for eco-friendly appliances which will save energy, water and gas, you will be rewarded. This becomes a great argument in the sales pitch. Not only will you feel good about yourself for contributing to looking after your planet, not only you will save money in energy bills, you will be paid for it. For my AAA washing-machine, I can ask the IBGE (Brussels Institute for the Management of the Environment) for 75 euros. Not bad.
Then you have individual initiatives in the form of little gizmos, like the one pictured above. You'll find it in your shower. It looks like a useless gadget, don't it? Well it ain't. What it does is cheat you into only using 50 percent of the flow (half the pressure you would get if you lifted it all the way, and that's already pretty good pressure) and to keep the water at a temperature of 38ºC (the "comfortable" temperature, one degree above your normal body temperature), so that you control your consumption of gas. If you want more pressure and more heat, you have to slightly force it up and left. Which I do everyday, because I like my showers boiling hot. Sorry. I see what they're trying to do, though, and I like it.
You have to respect these guys. They work hard at showing us natural-born-wasters the way. They would make Al Gore very proud. And... What can I say? It's impossible not to find a bit of personal satisfaction in obliging... No child of a French socialist do-gooding teacher can escape their history. Or can they?
1 comment:
Leguman is very happy to see that you care about nature. Because nature is our future. But leguman would prefer you to eat meat, fish, eggs and milk, rather than vegies and oranges. Whatever you do, never forget that leguman is watching you.
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