Swiss city takes tougher measures in fight against littering

SRF

Bus stops are often misused as waste disposal sites. Campaigns have failed to solve the problem.

It is a daily nuisance at bus stops in the Swiss city of Winterthur: rubbish bins overflow again and again. Most of the litter comes from private households. According to the city, private household rubbish accounts for more than half of the waste volume at individual bus stops.

Therefore in October the city of Winterthur launched a campaign against illegal waste disposal. With the slogan “Household rubbish is a private matter”, those responsible hoped that the situation would improve.

It has indeed become a little cleaner around the bins, says Simon Amann from the cleanliness working group at the city of Winterthur. But Amann doesn’t want to talk about a “game changer”. “We have to be honest about that.”

Instead of providing information and raising awareness, the city of Winterthur now wants to take further measures to combat illegal waste disposal.

The environmental police will carry out more checks at bus stops or in green spaces, Amann says. “In concrete terms, this means that patrols will stand next to rubbish bins and observe what’s being disposed of there.” Fines will also be issued for offences.

Another measure designed to alleviate the problem is smaller openings in the bins. “The openings are already very small, but they can be made even smaller,” Amann says.

But it will take time before overfilled litter bins at bus stops are a thing of the past, he says. In spring, those responsible want to take stock of whether the measures have borne fruit.

Littering is also problem in other Swiss cities

In many Swiss cities, household waste is disposed of on public land or in public rubbish bins. All of the cities asked by Swiss public television, SRF, confirmed this – in some the problem is bigger – for example in Winterthur. In others, such as Baden, it is smaller.

Some cities also rely on campaigns to sensitise the population. Not only Winterthur, but also Lucerne, for example: the city relies on poster campaigns, school campaigns or multilingual explanatory videos for correct disposal.

The problem has remained at a consistently low level for years. Accordingly, it is not one of the top problems, but the city is keeping at it.

For its part, in addition to labelling and notices, Chur also relies on targeted sanctions. “If there is any prospect of success, the disposed “bags” are searched for addresses. If household rubbish can be assigned to a person, a fine of CHF100 ($110) will be imposed according to the list of administrative fines,” writes the city on request.

At many locations, waste bins are already overfilled again the following day or weekend despite being emptied daily, partly due to the disposal of household rubbish. This gives the impression that they have not been emptied for some time. In Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, illegal dumping of waste on public land – in the open air, for example – is penalised with fines. The city also has an inspection service for this purpose. Disposing of household rubbish in waste bins on public land, on the other hand, is not penalised – as things stand today.

Translated from German using DeepL/amva/ts