Greetings Europeans! Would you please tell me if you are flooded with paper of all kinds like we are in the US

Question

If so, what do you do about it? Do you recycle? How much paper?

We produce 4-6 30 gallon barrels full of papers and cardboard to recycle every other week. That would be roughly 4-6 barrels that could hold 120 liters each.

Note to Sharon: I asked Europenas because of a joke made my Operacats in another question I asked. Still, she made me wonder what is going on with paper in Europe. I am pretty sure I know the answer for Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (they have a paper shortage). So I narrowed my field of inquiry to Europe.

Answer 1

I live in Germany, Europe, and we have blue containers for every household (which the household has to pay for) for 120 liters of paper trash we are allowed to throw in within a fortnight, then we're disposed of it. Thanks to environment protection regulations introduced in the 1980ies in Western Germany, we don't get as much unwanted paper into our letter boxes as in other countries, but still, it's a lot. Ad companies and newspaper companies have found out that they can circumvent the law by distributing their newspaper, adding "informational content", which is nothing else than paper ads, inserted into (rather than printed in) the newspaper.

But thanks to our almost seamless recycling system (which we pay for by fees and taxes, after all), most of it gets recycled. As a matter of fact (according to news broadcasts), we're almost running out of capacities.

Still, there is wood to be used to make a strong, reliable paper product. That can't be helped.

However, it doesn't save a single tree. The spare wood from the forests is now traded as "wood pellets" and used for heating, as it is, allegedly, "CO2 neutral", and keeps our CO2 balance at zero. In the 1980ies we used to say, don't cut down trees, and used recycled paper, to save our climate and the world; now they're doing exactly what we wanted to avoid, but on a larger scale, where single protests and alternative behavior won't suffice anymore. They made big business out of the environmental movement and out of Kyoto, and they won't stop until it's all done.

Do you know the movie "Soylent Green"? Watch it.

Consider this post as black humor, if you want.

Answer 2

We in the Netherlands also get too much paper, but there is a good thing for those people who do not want it.
It is a no-no sticker.
Or a yes-no sticker.
If you do not want any un-addressed post you put the no-no sticker on your letterbox, if you do want the local free newspaper you put the yes-no one on.
Does not keep all paper out, but reduces the lot to about a shopping bag full per year rather than per week.
(Over all the situation here is much like the one in Germany, see the answer above mine.)
In a 2 room apartment, (living-con-kitchen, bedroom and a tiny bathroom) I had 5 waist bins, and things like metal are taken out of the general waist before it is burned in a huge oven creating power. Chemical waste, fruit-kitchen and garden waste, paper, glass, and lastly the rest of the waste.

Answer 3

Yep, it's just the same in Europe as it is here.
When I lived in London (where i'm from originally) we recycled paper/cardboard, plastics, and metal cans.

Answer 4

In ITALY we recycle as well , we have specially marked containers in the corners of the street!

Now, the question is.. does "la nonna" use it? or even know what its for?....

Answer 5

why did you only ask the europeans this question? just curious