Great price comparison: that’s how much garbage bags cost us

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It reminds me of the comic book series “Asterix and Obelix”: Almost all Swiss municipalities now charge a sack fee for waste disposal. But some Geneva communities break the law, as in the example of the village of Asterix, the only place in Gaul to resist the Romans: Geneva, Carouge, Lancy, Meyrin, and Vernier.

They collect garbage for free and finance most of the expenses with taxpayer money. As early as 2011, the Federal Supreme Court unequivocally stated that polluters must also factor in the costs.

So while there are still some Geneva dissenters, the rest of the municipalities charge hefty fees. This emerges from an analysis by the price watcher from the beginning of summer. Municipal models vary widely, but most charge a basic fee and a bag or kilo fee.

Costs are high in large communities

The quality and service of garbage collection varies greatly, which of course has a strong influence on the amount of charge. For example, some cities operate extra disposal areas where bulky goods can be unloaded. Elsewhere, under-floor containers are sunk into the ground so that no large waste containers block the public space. The large differences in wages can also be explained by the different extents of the communities. Disposal is inherently expensive in large communities.

The price supervisor divided the communities into two categories. One includes communities that collect compost and other biological waste separately; the other includes waste where biological waste ends up in general waste.

In the first category, Lugano stands out as a particularly inexpensive municipality. This is interesting because until 2017 the city of Ticino was reluctant to charge baggage fees. La Chaux-de-Fonds and Neuchâtel, on the other hand, demand a lot of money, as the graph shows.

Among municipalities collecting green waste, for example the city of Zurich, is cautious in its pricing policy. On the other end of the table are Kloten and Vevey. Kloten charges high for small households, while Vevey is expensive for medium-sized households.

How many garbage bags a household uses per year naturally plays a role in calculating these fees – so the price watcher made assumptions. A single household would need an estimated 34 bags of 35 liters per year, and a three-person household would need 103 bags. A large four-person household fills 137 sacks each year.

A single sack for small households is the most expensive in Kloten and the cheapest in Allschwil. For other household sizes, municipalities are listed differently.

Source :Blick