Teach an old dog to sit

Within three years all companies and households in the City of Göteborg will change to a weight-based waste system. Askim was first in 2010, and 2011 was the time for Älvsborg, Tynnered, Frölunda, Högsbo Lärjedalen, Gunnared Bergsjön and Kortedala. Other districts begin in 2012. That means whole Göteborg have to change now.

Since compostable waste is free to throw in a separate container, it is a great gain to sort this out from the other garbage. My mother went up to our tenants to talk about it, and came down happy. After just two days she call me and said "you have to come over! noow!"

This was what my mother found in the compostable waste bin.

In the compostable waste bin; metal and different plastic. She asked me what to do, she said that it should be so easy. "I can tell them that if a pig can eat it, they can throw it there". She called up, a bit nervous, for, what do you say when you searched thought out someones garbage? 

She said that she saw a bit of a plastic piece stick up from the bag (which was true). She talked for a while with the man in the house who is in his 80's but still in a 70's shape. The call went good we think, only thing was that he said the recycle guide was cryptic... Mum felt a relief that it went out good and the sentence "if a pig can eat it, you can throw it in the brown paper bag" rang in my ears. That was a good one I thought.

Just a day after my mum called me; "they did it again". She was in the cellar with all the trash around her. I told her to throw everything in the garbage bin for unrecycling, she can't recycle other's garbage.. How hard can it be? Is it impossible for people to recycle nowadays? Elder people should, I think, have a common sense how to do that.. 


Story continuous...

Government/people- who is responsible?

Most people think government should protect and ensure that hazardous components stays out from our surroundings. Meaning, ban them if they are too hazardous. Most people also think that government (or municipality) should be the one who makes it easy to collect things that we shouldn't throw in normal garbage.


Most government through, think that people are one's that can see right and wrong, they think that people from information can learn what contains hazardous components and that people can learn how to avoid them or learn where to put them after use.


Who has the responsibility? Is it so that environmental concerned people have to inform other people what is bad or what is less bad, is it organizations and grass-roots task to make sure that people have a good environment to live in?


I want to say that environmentalism is not something that is only connected to a group of anxious people. It is about people now and then and it also hit back to government if they don't act. To make sure that all these actors can work together is what environmentalism should be.

-linking up the 'bees'- the individuals and small organizations that are buzzing with ideas and imagination- and the 'trees', the bigger institutions that have power and money but are usually not so good at thinking creatively. On their own, the bees can't achieve impact. On their own, the trees find it hard to adapt. (p 125. Murray et al)

Murray,R., Caulier-­‐Grice,J.,´and Mulgan,G., 2010. The open book of social innovation.