Bebbi Saggs

Probably the most important thing you learn in your first week or so in Switzerland is the need to dispose all personal garbage in a very special trash bag called the "bebbi sagg." The bag comes in several sizes... The largest shown below is about kitchen sized, and here's the shocker, costs about CHF3 each (about USD4.50)!!





This crazy expensive garbage bag is a work of genius in that it drives all sorts of changes in behavior of Swiss residents. For example, as a sort of tax on personal waste, everyone works pretty hard to minimize consumption / packaging in purchased products and proactively recycles (you can't afford not to!).

I've also been told that it also produces some less anticipated behavior as well - it might not be uncommon to find people sneaking trash to work for free disposal. Either way you must put your garbage bag on the sidewalk on the pick-up days for your neighbourhood (2x per week usually) as shown below.





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