Rubbish

One thing that I was curious about when we first came here, was what to do with the rubbish. I mean, so many people in one place - and we all know how much waste modern people produce - where did it all end up?

We quickly discovered these - charming, aren´t they? This is where the inhabitants of Longyearbyen get rid of their waste - quick´n easy.




Best thing you can say about them, is that you can carry out your waste any time you like - and there´s always plenty of room in them.

From the start, I had my doubts as to whether the conscientiously sorted stuff we deposit through the different slots marked "aluminium", "glass", "paper", "plastic" etc, stay sorted. I´ve had a feeling that all of it would just end up in one big jumble on the local rubbish heap. What I hoped was that maybe they burnt it in the power plant, that would make sense, wouldn´t it? I mean, it´s happily burning 24/7, so why not put the heat to further use? Not the metal and glass and stuff, of course, but the ordinary household-junk?

Well, they don´t, but they don´t dump it on the dunghill either. Most of the waste is shipped down to the mainland, to be taken care of there. The reason they don´t burn stuff (other than coal), in the power plant, is that it would cost too much to upgrade it for that use - or that´s what I´ve heard.

So metal, plastic, paper, wood, electrical stuff - plus all the rest is sent down. But not glass - that´s dumped on the local heap. I´ll have to go and have a look at that one day - a mountain of glass, what a sight!

So the rubbish-situation is better than I feared around here, and from what I hear, they´re going to make recycling even easier within the year. I hope so.

And here´s something that I hadn´t seen before: a "shop" where everything´s free! In "Bruktikken", you can leave stuff that you don´t need anymore, and others can come and help themselves to it. What an excellent idea for a community where people come and go all the time.


An idea hereby offered to the whole world, for free!