The Challenges of a Green Lifestyle

Glass

For a couple of years, in the farthest corner of the apartment building's courtyard, neatly lined up stood not one but several waste containers - for household waste, paper, plastic, glass. Accordingly, the waste sorting habits of our building changed too.

A three-litre jar broke. The logical conclusion would be that this is glass, but the opening in the container designated for glass is so small that only bottles can be loaded into it. After informal communication with Latvijas Zaļais Punkts (Latvia's Green Dot), I learned that the glass containers are intended for bottles, while all other glass must be put in the regular container. What is the point of sorting then?

The End of Waste Sorting

One morning I headed towards the bins. In one hand a bag of household waste, in the other an empty beer bottle, and under my arm a flattened - or more precisely, cut along the seams - cardboard box. A surprise! In place of the usual waste containers there now stands one large box, taller than a person, with an opening in the side. Sorting was over. I cannot say I hadn't heard stories that all that sorting is "a waste of effort", since all the waste containers tend to end up being loaded into the same rubbish truck. It is difficult to judge residents' conscientiousness and sorting quality; the habit of sorting was not burdensome for me. For more than a year now, everything goes into one container.

Some time ago I noticed a colourful piece of paper on the notice board in the stairwell, on which a long-awaited glad tiding could be read - now the residents of your building too have the opportunity to sort their waste! The habit of sorting had faded, but the little green within me would have been very pleased to return to it.

I go over, look from a distance - something seems odd, the bin is still just one. On the container the same piece of paper is stuck, and below it written by hand - the glass sorting container is located in the courtyard of the next building. Driven by curiosity I went to scout it out. What if there are not one but several containers for different types of waste? I recalled something once read in the Rēzeknes Vēstis newspaper, that the residents of some building were outraged that people from other buildings were also throwing rubbish into "their" container - from which I concluded that it is apparently not right to drag rubbish to some other "not ours" container. I look from a distance - yes, there it stands, only it is not a glass container but the same old familiar green bottle container.

Fluorescent Tubes

Since I switched to rechargeable batteries, fortunately I have no batteries to throw out. But if I did, I have noted that in supermarkets there are boxes designated for this purpose. Only one has to remember to take them along when going to the shop.

However, from prehistoric times a long fluorescent tube had got stuck around. Aware that these contain harmful substances, one should not put them in the bin. So - to hand in. But where?! Maybe at Depo? Bearing this need in mind, in the shop I find a corner in which there stands an approximately half-metre-wide box with the label - for lightbulbs. Hmm... but my tube is considerably longer?! A lady at the information counter kindly explains that here only small bulbs can be accepted, but for large ones other drop-off points must be looked up online.

Returning home, I opened the internet, found those who deal with accepting used fluorescent lamps. I called. Collection points are at such and such addresses - pleasantly, not only in Riga but throughout Latvia. They will collect if there are 100 or more. True, that was quite some time ago, but back then one had to pay a certain number of cents for handing in each lamp. The story ended with me driving the burnt-out tube to Depo and inserting one end into the not particularly suitable by size box for used lamps. It must be said, if I didn't have a car, handing in such a lamp would be considerably more of a hassle.

Medications

With medications everything seems straightforward, as unused ones can be handed in at a pharmacy. Medications are usually either used up, or one or two that have passed their expiry date get tossed into the general bin. But the need arose to audit "grandmother's supplies", and a fairly large bag of medications to throw away accumulated there. Both little bottles and dressing and adhesive materials, as well as tablets, ointments and a "little star" in a metal tin, about the width of a two-euro coin.

In an uplifted mood from the work well done and the awareness that, unlike those over there who throw everything in the bin, I was "doing the right thing", I took it all to the pharmacy. The pharmacist, casting an eye over what I had brought, stated: "We accept them, but the medications must be separated from their packaging - that is, each tablet must be popped out." I was so outraged and confused that I did not even ask how to handle tinctures and ointments. I walked out and loaded the whole bag into the bin placed by the door.

Forgive me, nature, I have sinned. I hope you will forgive me. I promise to mend my ways.