Copenhagen - Garbage
Household garbage
Household garbage gets picked up once a week. Tax for garbage disposal are included in your tax payments, so there is no additional payment you need to consider to your annual expenses.
Danes are quite environmentally conscious, nevertheless not many household have differentiated garbage, which means that you have to deliver paper, glass and plastic to apposite containers scattered around town.
Trash (or garbage) bag have a clear line which indicates the maximum level you are allowed to fill your bag. Should you go beyond this line, do not be surprised to find your bag left behind!
PAGURO TIPS: If you need a little flexibility from the waste collector try leaving a couple of beers next to your garbage. That might help! Particularly during holiday periods as Christmas.
Bottles
A reason why you never find broken or empty bottles in the street is that they are worth money. You pay a deposit (flaske pant in Danish) when you purchase some bottled liquids (beers, soda, sometime wine), which you get back when you return your empty bottles.
In various locations in the streets there are recycling containers for:
- Glass (wine bottles, bottles not from Denmark, jars)
- Paper (newspapers)
- Plastic
Never throw glass in your household garbage.
Large items
For bigger items there are two possibilities. Either to find out on which days/weeks big items are picked up in your street (Storskrald in Danish), or go yourself to the nearest rubbish dump. You can find the address on one of the first pages of the phone book. Look for:
- Renovation, Danish for "rubbish sector"
- Losseplads, Danish for "waste dump"
Dumps are very well organized and every categories of rubbish/material has a clearly indicated place... so remember to sort your rubbish before going! Separate metal, wood, cardboard, clothes etc.
Garden waste
Green Waste (organic matter from your garden) is picked up a fixed day once a week, or every fortnight. To find out which day it is in your neighbourhood search for "have affald" in the phone book or ask your neighbour.
Green waste bags must not be made of plastic. Should you ignore this requirement your bags will be left behind.
The appropriate brown paper bags for garden waste are sold in supermarkets.
Branches can be left out of bags, but they need to be tied up in bunches, no longer than 1 metre.
