Hello everone,

This is my first day here (Frankfurt).I noticed downstairs a huge rubbish bin with 3 openings.Can someone kindly explain to me how to dispose of my garbage properly.

Thank you in advance:)

I would sneak a look in the neighbours bin to see which colour lid is for paper and which is for recyclable stuff. There's usually a black one for everything else.

There's probably one for biodegradable kitchen waste, another for packaging with the Grüne Punkt logo (below) and a third for everything else ('Restmüll'). Paper and glass should be taken to a recycling bin, and card, wood, garden waste, old electrical items etc to the local dump. But this does vary from one region of Germany to the next.

Click to view attachment

Or even place to place. My current residence has one for Altpapier, one for Verpackung and another for Restmüll, but my previous one, also in Frankfurt, also had three bins, but they were Restmüll, Altpapier and Biomüll. Mind you, in both places, what each bin was for was helpfully written on it in suitably readable font and pleasingly large size.

I have a box for glass too...

My place has four; green for paper (Altpapier), yellow for plastic/ der grüne Punkt package or Tetrapak, black for Restmüll, and the rest for Biomüll (can't remember which colour..brown maybe). We usually collect glass bottles and bring them to Glasmülltonne (for white, brown, and green) outside the resident!

Thank u everyone

Not to sound too dumb, but can you explain the bio bin? It is for kitchen waste? Only that? So I throw out my leftovers, etc in the green bin. no bags - just food in the bin? That just sounds like a mess. please help clarify.
Our garbage and bio gets picked up alternating weeks. So that is two weeks of bio / garbage. how do the germans do it? Our garbage bin is full in a week.

In the 'bio bin' goes bio degradable stuff, exactly like what you would put on a compost heap. Left overs, kitchen waste etc.
Paper and biodegradable 'plastic' bags are okay, normal plastic bag are not! (You can get biodegradable bags in the shops)
I have to say I don't worry to much if it's a bit mess as long as it's inside the bin. :-)

The big drogerie chains do "plastic" bags that are really con starch for the bio bin.
Throw some newspaper in the bio bin to sak up liquids as that is what smells.

Bill full up after a week and you are on a fortnightly cycle?

Either CUT the ammount of waster you produce by half.
Or arrange with e refuse depatment for a bigger bin, which will of course cost money.

Leftovers are not to go into the brown bin. No cooked food (meats, fatty products and such) belong there. Fruit and veggie peelings or rests, tea bags (w/o the staple fixing the paper tag to the bag), coffee filters and used grounds, egg shells, grass clippings, etc. are all fine. If your city has a local website, you can find the info there. Also the Einwohnermeldeamt should/may have this info. Have fun sorting!

Here is a the official guide from the FES, the local Frankfurt refuse collectors.
Multilingual guide to Abfalltrennung.

The information here does conflict with some of the previous entries in this thread, but I suppose there may be regional differences. See Page 9 for the summary in English.

hello, my wife and i moved here last week. we are a little confused still on the waste removal. we have a blue bin which i can see is paper and cardboard. the black one is bio. i think. i see other people with yellow bags and don't know what goes in there.

what about glass and plastic?

any help would be appreciated. thanks

Topics merged by admin

Some plastic bottles have a deposit so instead of chucking them in the yellow bin you can take them to a supermarket and get the deposit money back.

thanks I have done that a few times but just need help with what to do with all of the other stuff like food scraps and odd stuff.

mkcgifford, I feel your pain. We were also quite confused with the recycling system here when we moved and it just got more confusing in our area with the addition of the biotonne. I just hope that all our effort at separating the waste does really lead to recycling and not to just shipping it off to another landfill somewhere else.

Food scraps = Bio (Black)
Paper/Cardboard = Blue
Glass = Green Container (Usually centrally located in the neighborhood or near the local food store)
Yellow bags = Tin cans & Plastic containers (Which don't have a deposit), Tetra Pac's, Tinfoil.

The Above mentioned FES Site (Not the Link) even has an Info Brochure in English..
Would you like us to carry your garbage out to the curb for you too?

All In English (And 10 Other Languages)
Special Garbage (PDF)
Basic Garbage Collection Overview (PDF)
How to Correctly separate your garbage (PDF)

It does really help if you have a sense of humour about the whole thing. We had a local container for green bottles which displayed a large sticker saying when not to use it. The quiet time was between 12.00 and 15.00 so the neighbours could have a peaceful lunchtime. Next to it stood a container for brown bottles forbidding use between 12.00 and 14.00. I began to wonder if brown bottles, being generally smaller, actually made less noise.

Once you have mastered the waste disposal you can start planning when and where to wash the car and which day to mow the lawn. If you want help with these everyday dilemmas - use the search function on this board.

I guess I missed something - so do u all like have different trash cans INSIDE ur home too to separate this stuff. I mean vegetable peelings n all ok, goes in the normal usual trash can, along with sweepigns etc. I have a sepete one for papers and cardboard boxes, viz crates n cartons.
What about tin cans and soiled kitchen towels, foil, cling wrap, where does that go?

DO we have to dispose of the bio waste in newspapers like mentioned, no normal bags which u get from those veggie vendors on the farmers market? (Though i dont see a specific trash can for bio in my place.. but Id like to help in the recycling a lil better)

Landfills are outlawed since about two years ago - it goes to what's euphemistically termed "thermal recycling" usually nowadays.


I separately collect in my place:
- bio stuff
- paper/cardbox
- wrapping, tetra pack, tin cans etc
- bottles
- everything else (including soiled stuff, rags, sweepings, non-recyclable stuff)

The newspapers in the bio waste are so the stuff doesn't drip all over and cuz it soaks up some of the smell.

-yeah, i have one for bottles - which i mostly recycle, or put in those public bottle disposers,
-and i had one for papers where I also put cardboard boxes, receipts etc..
then there is the regular garbage - where everything goes - along with hair and sweepings (thats got to be degradable - afterall sand and maybe food crumbs.. just watch out for staples and pins n the likes!)
-But now im adding one for tetrapak and chocolate and cookie wrappings etc.. 0:)
-Then I have a separate place for packing material - cardboards etc
-And ofcourse a different bag for egg cartons, now ive collected a lot of them, all in Good shape..(had saved them fr the kid to do some crafts with..)though Id hate them to go wasted and spolied and wasting more resources in the process of recycling - is there a place I can return or give these to?? do any shops like rewe etc take EGG CARtons??

I once went to my local farmers market with my own egg carton, the lady was jus surprised and looking at me.. as though I need help.
The eggs still cost me the same, but it felt good to save an egg carton. Maybe they should have a charge for the eggcarton from now on! That should discourage ppl from just throwing their egg cartons away, they should keep it preciously with their silverware!
and help mother nature a lil bit more..