Excuse me, do you have moment to talk about sorting?
Did you know that more than half of the waste generated in TYS apartments is recycled?
The waste collection points of our housing location have containers for biowaste, plastic, paper, metal, glass, cardboard and mixed waste… But the containers alone do not guarantee successful sorting of waste. In fact, the tenants carefully sorting their waste play a key role!
Linked below you wull find a sorting guide by Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto (LSJH) waste management company. Please read through the guide and bring your recycling awareness up to date!
At the end of this page, you’ll find a short sorting quiz you can take to test your knowledge!
From comfort to rent – sorting affects everything!
Here are three reasons why sorting is worth it:
- Sorting reduces your carbon footprint!Careful sorting allows you to significantly reduce your carbon footprint. According to a report by the ClimateGuide.fi (report in finnish), maintained by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Resources Institute Finland, and the national climate unit of the ELY Centres, the carbon footprint generated from waste by a consumer who is mindful and diligent about sorting can be more than half smaller than that of someone who only sorts part of their waste.
- Sorting improves housing comfort!Mistakes in sorting cause delays in waste transport. These delays may cause the waste containers to fill up, and in worst case scenarios, some of the rubbish ends up outside them, attracting birds and pests.
- Sorting reduces the costs of waste management!Correctly sorted waste generates less expenses than mixed waste or incorrectly sorted waste. In the long run, sorting waste correctly will also help reduce the pressure to increase rents.
What happens if incorrectly sorted waste ends up in the waste container?
All waste types from metal to cardboard are processed differently. This means that different types of transport vehicles are needed for emptying the containers: one picks up mixed waste, one glass and metal, another collects bio waste, and so forth.
Before emptying a waste container, the driver inspects the container for sorting mistakes. This is a vital stage of the job. Plastic bags sorted into biowaste, for example, may become stuck in the processing mechanism of biowaste, hindering its operations.
So what happens when a sorting mistake is spotted?
1. The waste container cannot be emptied, as the contents cannot be processed.
2. The contents of the entire bin need to be processed as mixed waste.
3. A mixed waste transport operator needs to be ordered separately to the collection point to empty out the container.
4. This causes a delay in emptying the container, and it may become full.
Ordering an emptying service separately and processing the entire container as mixed waste will also incur extra costs. A seemingly innocent sorting mistake may therefore have long-term consequences, so remember to read through the sorting guide carefully! However, if you are not certain where to put your bin bag even after reading the instructions, please sort it in with mixed waste to be safe.
What can you do if you notice any problems around the waste collection points?
When visiting our housing locations, we also keep an eye on our waste collection points, but we are not always around. So if you spot any waste-related issues in your surroundings, please submit a notice of defect about your observation through the tenant pages.
You can submit a notice of defect when, for example:
- The small bin next to the front door or in the yard is full.
- There is rubbish near the housing location or lying on the ground.
- Some of the waste containers at your housing location’s waste collection point are repeatedly full.
These notices will help us track any problems related to waste management and allows us to share our information with waste transport operators when necessary. Based on the notices of defect, we may also send targeted reminders related to waste and sorting it to the tenants of certain housing locations or areas.
A usable household item or piece of furniture is not waste – put it to good use!
Useful household items and furniture do not belong in waste collection points. Even if you take them to the waste collection point thinking that someone else can grab them for your own use, items left there become unusable in Finland’s varying weather conditions in no time. Furniture and other items left in waste collection points has to be removed from there by separate transport, which increases costs.
It is a good idea to find a new home for your own useful items and furniture by selling or donating. For example, Turun Ekotori accepts household items and furniture. You can make a donation by taking your items or furniture to Ekotori locations or order a pick-up from Ekotori. For a small fee, Ekotori picks up items and furniture from all TYS housing locations, now also from the Student Village!
Test your sorting knowledge!
Thank you for reading this far! You clearly care about recycling and sorting waste. If you want to test your sorting knowledge, you can take our short recycling quiz!
The quiz has eleven questions, and answering them will only take a moment of your time.
