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Why there are five bins, and the bottles beside them
German waste separation is stricter than almost anywhere and it is not merely municipal enthusiasm: the packaging system is paid for by producers through the Grüne Punkt scheme, which is why packaging has its own stream, and organic waste collection has been compulsory nationwide since 2015. The practical rules that catch newcomers. Glass goes to the communal containers and not into a household bin, sorted by color, and — a genuine rule rather than a courtesy — not on Sundays or late in the evening, because the noise falls under the Ruhezeit of lesson 74. Lids come off jars and bottles and go in the yellow sack, because they are a different material. Rinsing is unnecessary: löffelrein, spoon-clean, is the official standard, and washing packaging wastes more water than it saves. Paper with food on it is Restmüll, not paper. Then the deposit system, which is where the money is. A single-use plastic bottle or can carries a deposit of twenty-five cents; refillable bottles carry less, typically eight or fifteen. You get it back at a machine in any shop that sells that kind of container, and it adds up fast enough that Das ist Geld is not a joke — a crate of empties is several euros. Which explains the custom that puzzles every visitor: bottles left standing neatly beside a public bin rather than thrown into it. People who collect deposits for a living, or simply for the money, then do not have to reach into rubbish. It is a small and widespread courtesy, and doing it marks you as someone who understands the place. If you get it wrong, the consequences are social before they are financial: a mis-sorted bin can be left uncollected, with a sticker explaining why, and in some buildings the cost of a rejected collection is passed on through the Nebenkosten of lesson 67. Which is the real reason the caretaker cares, and why the Aushang exists.