Recycling

One of the first things you have to learn when you move to Belgium is how to empty the trash. This is not as straightforward as it sounds but very important if you are enjoying the locally crafted brews. When we lived in Maryland, we had the benefit of single stream recycling and twice weekly trash service. In Belgium, things are a little different. First, you have to figure out what bag scheme your commune uses. Yes, that is correct, the communities are called communes. In Brussels, garbage was white, plastic was blue and paper was yellow. Bottles had to be carried to the nearest green bin, of which there were very few, at least in our old neighborhood. (Fortunately for me, my wife always did it.) In our new commune, garbage is brown, Plastic is still blue but paper goes in boxes and you still have to carry your bottles to a glass-recycling bin. The bin is thankfully a nice short (10 minutes) walk from the house. (Again, my wife usually takes care of it here too.) The bags are sold at any of the local stores, but you do have to use the locally approved variety. The blue bags for plastic that worked in the Brussels Capital Region do not work in our current commune in Flanders. If you screw any of this up, your garbage will be left behind for you to correct. Lastly, you have to request a recycling schedule from your commune to figure out what days of the month are slated for which varietal of recycling. After all of this, the system actually works pretty well.