Back in the 1990s when I returned to Germany, I was introduced to the 'Gelben sack' (the yellow bag). This was the invention of the pro-environmental crowd on disposing of aluminum-type recyclable materials.
It was a extremely thin plastic with a ultra-thin plastic 'string'. You would have this 'can' in your kitchen with a lid, and you'd attach the sack to the lid. As trash day came up each two weeks....you would take your one or two yellow bags out for pick up.
The chief complaint was that the bags easily broke (in an average year....I probably had six bags to break), and that the tie-up string simply wasn't capable of achieving success unless you limited the bag to roughly two-thirds of it's capability. At that point in time, it took only a year for me to be discouraged with the 'gelben sack' routine. In simple terms....it was crap.
The topic got brought up this week via ARD (public TV here in Germany, Channel One).
The Ministry of Environment has picked up the topic. There's a discussion going on to dump the stupid 'gelben sack' and force everyone (in particularly community garbage bosses)....to adapt to the plastic can (similar to the paper can and the bio-can that everyone now has).
In my area (Wiesbaden), they flipped over years ago, and dumped the yellow bags.....mandating that everyone have a plastic dumpster (on wheels).
Why having to make this a national policy? That's the thing about it. You would think with all the negativity....at least a decade ago....that various communities on their own would have dumped the stupid bags and gone to a plastic dumpster instead. So now it takes some national agenda to make things happen rather than simply listening to people locally in the first place.
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