Saturday, July 26, 2008

ON RECYCLING

Several examples of Finnish recyclable bottles.
Thanks to my Tuska companion for the picture.

Nature in Slovenia is not as clean as in Finland. That's a fact. Slovenian ecological awareness is not as high as Finnish one. That is also a fact. Despite it, the awareness, is getting better, it still seems somewhat behind. There are still washing machines in the forests, and there are plastic bottles. Especially these ones, plastic bottles.

When it comes to Finnish ecological awareness, they have figured out a very useful process considering recycling of plastic bottles. Their solution is not all about special wastebins into which people are kindly asked to throw empty plastic bottles; of course, in some cases, they don't do so, but they rather throw their empty plastic bottle on the ground, thus letting it to rot joyfully in the midst of Slovenian green fields, under whispering lime trees. It was just a worthless plastic bottle anyway. May it be. For some years, or so.


In Finland, on the other hand, the situation is different. Clever Northern nation has invented nice and, of course, partly digitalized machine that usually operates in grocery shops. This machine has only one mission to fulfill. Collecting plastic bottles. Oh, and cans, too. The plastic bottles, at least, are used again, the cycle goes properly around - and, most important, the one who has decided to recycle them gets back 20 cents for small bottles and 40 cents for big ones. The machine counts the bottles, for it is very smart and it knows exactly what it ate, and then, when the recycler has finnished feeding the machine, it prints out lovely paper telling the amount of money. So, if one is keen and her or his ecological awareness is high, such plastic bottle income can be nice. Finns drink a lot, and many pleasant boozes come in plastic. But, well, Slovenians drink a lot, too.

Collecting plastic bottles in Finland seems to be a way of business. While we were waiting to get through the gates of Tuska festival, there were several people hunting for the empty plastic bottles and cans those festive metalheads would generously throw away. Yes, in this case, bottles would meet Finnish soil as they would also be picked up very soon. So, people from the edge of society with low income would get some money. Here, by the way, it is quite sad to see elderly ones, not tramps or drunks, but decent old people collecting this trash to improve their pension. But all in all - recycling machines can offer some comfort. For both, people and nature.

Why is not such recycling system dealing with plastic bottles and cans in Slovenia as well? Please may it be.

5 comments:

Nina said...

V Sloveniji se že reciklaža steklenic ne izvaja na takšen način, da ne bi slučajno kdo česa zaslužil: vrneš lahko samo toliko steklenic, kolikor jih boš nato kupil.

Po drugi strani pa na Hrvaškem že vračajo denar za plastenke - hecno, ko imaš v roki plastenko slovenskega proizvajalca, na njej pa v hrvaščini navedeno, kolikšna je njena vrednost :)

Ulmiel said...

Ok, zakon sistem, I love it! Sicer pa se mi zdi, da smo v Sloveniji še daleč od pravega recikliranja. Tud teli eko otoki ki jih imamo v Ljubljani, so bolj ko ne zlorabljeni in postanejo čisto običajna kanta za smeti. Kakor kje no. Se mi pa zdi fajn ideja, res! Samo bi moralo biti tako kot na Finskem in ne tako kot mi vračamo steklenice - kot je že Nina omenila. V mojem najljubšem hipermarketu je ta proces tako kompliciran, da raje žrtvujem 15 centov in vržem flašo v kontejner za flaše.

kaneli said...

@nina & nárëlaimë

Ekološka zavest na Finskem je pač zelo visoka; tako zelo, da je že kar trendi. :) Med alternativci, denimo metalci, je tako zelo priljubljeno razglašanje in poudarjanje ekološke zavesti, recikliranja in nasploh skrbi za okolje. Pri tem je vsekakor dobro, da ne ostane samo pri besedičenju, ampak so tu tudi koristna dejanja.

Povratne plastenke so zakon in res upam, da se bo takšen sistem uvedel tudi pri nas.

Anonymous said...

No ok, to si zdej opisala to mashino za recikliranje steklenic kot da so jo zdej zdej izumili na Finskem. Dejansko taksni avtomati obstajajo v Sloveniji, tako da ze dolgo nisem slisala, da bi lahko vrnil nazaj le toliko steklenic, kot si jih kupil. Vsaj v Ljubljani tega vec ni - so avtomati in not zmeces kolikor imas. Se strinjam, na zalost za plasticne steklenice te moznosti se ni in jo nadvse podpiram, pa tudi za piksne....

kaneli said...

Zame je bila ta mašina pač kulturni šok, in se mi je zdelo, da je plod finske ekološke ozaveščenosti. :D

Hja, ne vem, kako je v Sloveniji s temi avtomati za steklenice... zagotovo lahko trdim, da se zadeva nahaja v našem bližnjem nakupovalnem velikanu. Kakšna manjša trgovina, vem za vsaj eno ali dve, pa tega ne pozna in se steklenice še vedno zbirajo v košari pri blagajni.