I knew that I had always been interested in bettering how we handle our garbage in America. But it wasn’t until I had walked the streets of Berlin had I realized how little we really do to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Everyone one could go around the city you could find these orange cans. The cans each had some sort of humorous way of attracting attention to themselves. This is a very effective way of maintaining people’s attention to waste management.

The underground subway systems in America are known for being littered with trash and grim, not in Berlin. The platforms were essentially spotless and again we see there are public garbage cans even here.

 

The city also employs clever ways of integrating cans into public places. Normally an orange can would stick out and detract away from the advertising of the busy store fronts in Alexanderplatz. However, placing the cans into the street lamps and coloring them the same way is a simple way to keep them close by but out of direct sight.

 

Here we see another orange can around the streets of Berlin. This one is visually letting the citizens know that the can also serves as a “small poop” helper. On the bag one can see a little dog and could imagine the contents of the bag itself.

 

While window shopping at a Saturn electronics store I noticed these. Germans are heavily into recycling, there are about five different categories they use. Here we have common waste one would have when visiting an electronics store: paper, boxes, and plastic.

In the streets near residential buildings one finds a lot of large public recycling. Here we can see that Germans separate their glass into at three categories: white, green and brown.

 

This can depicts my favorite joke of them all. It basically says “Energy box: in case of emergency we generate energy for 100,000 house holds.” This text implies that by recycling you are saving energy in the cost of manufacturing more products.

 

Look even harder in the residential sections of the city and you can find these contraptions. This recycling bin is specifically for clothing and shoes. These are becoming more popular in America but still are not as abundant.

 

This orange trash can has a strange joke on it. The text reads “cup butler” and one can see that the cup is cracked a little bit implying its use. I believe this trash can is to mean that even when you are out partying you should be conscience of where you beer cup lands.

 

Lastly we have the king of the recycling-trash can in German: Deutsche Bahn (DB), or what is simply the train company of Germany. Here we can see four categories. These specific categories are thought to be the most common pedestrian trash. Hence, DB created a very unique trash can for exactly that purpose.