Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Hey everyone! So I'm currently in the middle of a dilemma. Upon our arrival in Germany, we learned that they have a rather strange method of recycling. Apparently they recycle EVERYTHING - paper, plastic, glass (dark, clear, and colored), food, etc... The fact that they recycle virtually everything is not the problem though. The problem is that we don't know where to put all of our recyclable items. We were informed that all of our recycling should be seperated into different colored bags (each piece of recyclable is assigned a different color) and kept in the kitchen until all of the bags are completely full... Well, I don't know about you, but I usually don't like to keep that much trash in the kitchen... Not only would that start to smell after a while, but where do we find the extra space, considering that our kitchen is the size of a small closet?! We were then told that, once the bags are full, we can deposit them into the appropriate colored dumpster or marked container (each colored bag has to go into its assigned dumpster, which is the same color as the bag). We were told that most of the dumpsters are located in our apartment complex, but some of the recycling dumpsters are spread throughout the city, in no specific location... because that would just make it too easy! :)

It was made very clear to us that we are not to place the wrong colored bag into any container... If they (I'm assuming the city workers) find out that we put our recycling or trash into a wrong container, they will charge us extra for it... Wow! So, I'm to assume, that there are city workers digging through the garbage in an attempt to find the people who threw the wrong colored garbage bag into the dumpster?! Crazy! Anyways, we found out that the brown dumpsters at our apartment complex are for food waste (which is another story in itself... food waste doesn't get placed into a bag, and those dumpsters breed insects and maggots... eeeww!), the black dumpster is for regular trash and that has to be in the yellow bag, and then the other containers are unlabeled, but they don't correspond to the other colors of the bags we have... Are you kidding me?! :)

Long story short, since we moved here, we haven't found a way to get rid of all of our recycling... I've been throwing all of our recyclables into one bag (which is white... I'm such a rebel! :)) and stashing it in the closet in the hallway... Nice! Well, it's pretty much gotten out of control and I'm desperately wanting all of this recycling out of the apartment! So, I've decided to take matters into my own hands... Since I'm clueless as to where I should put all of this stuff, and noone has been able to communicate to me where I should take all of it, I've been sneaking a few bottles/containers at a time and placing them into the black dumpster (which is supposed to be for "general trash") behind our complex... I try to do it late at night or early in the morning when no one is around so that I won't get caught...I feel like I'm in Mission Impossible as I quickly run to the dumpster, while trying to conceal my plastic/glass containers, without being noticed! :) As of now, I haven't been caught, but keep your fingers crossed that I continue to remain this discreet! :)

On that note, I have a few more bottles to take out to the dumpster this evening... Wish me luck! Hope you're all having a great day! Miss you much!