Principles of waste sorting

Food and cooking waste accounts for most of the litter generated in nature. This includes bio-waste, packaging, and municipal waste from food preparation and consumption.

What to do with biowaste?

• Bring your leftover food with you – the sandwich that accompanied you to the forest tastes just as good at home too!
• Put food and other bio-waste in the appropriate container or composter.
• Small amounts of food waste (except solid waste such as bones) can be disposed of in a dry toilet.
• Do not place bio-waste in a non-designated waste bin, where it stains, begins to stink, and spoils other waste suitable for recycling.
• Food waste must not be loosely discarded in nature – even biodegradable waste will not disappear from there in a matter of hours or days. Dumped food waste is an unpleasant sight and a threat to wild animals, for whom human processed food is mostly unsuitable. If there is no way to take food waste along with you, a small amount can be buried in the soil.
• Under no circumstances should bio-waste be poured into a body of water!
• Dirty biodegradable food containers may be placed in a municipal waste container or, if available, in a composter or bio-waste container.
• Used kitchen paper can be placed in a campfire, dry toilet or composter.
• NB! Organisers of events or camps must collect and dispose of bio-waste separately.

What to do with packaging?

• Thank you for thinking ahead and packing your food ‘waste-free’ (reusable container, material that can be burned in a campfire)!
• Clean cardboard and cardboard food boxes can be placed in the paper and cardboard container.
• Dirty paper and cardboard or wooden food packaging and paper can be burned in small quantities in a campfire or in the open fireplace of a forest hut at a time when fires are permitted. Do not leave this work to others – a hearth cluttered with litter is not a beautiful sight.
• Take the packaging with deposit with you and return it to the collection point.
• Place clean (does not contain food residues) mixed packaging in the mixed packaging container. If there is a separate container for glass packaging at the collection point, put the glass packaging in the appropriate container.
• Highly soiled packaging (e.g. grilled meat packaging with residual sauces) must be disposed of in a municipal waste container.
• Never throw packaging containing aluminium foil or plastic into a campfire, as they can leave non-biodegradable residues and emit toxic gases.

What to do with municipal waste?

• All highly soiled packaging and disposable containers are municipal waste. Do not add them to mixed packaging; by doing so, you will undo all the work of diligent sorters.
• Make sure the disposable grill is completely cooled before throwing it in the container!
• Pour the ash left over from the reusable grill into the fire ring. Completely cooled ash may be placed in a municipal waste container.
• Placing hot disposable grills, coals, and ash in the municipal waste container is prohibited!

• Equipment that breaks down or becomes useless during a hike or other activity is mostly municipal waste. Take it with you!
• A walker can put his broken shoes, clothes or other broken equipment in the nearest municipal waste container. A person who comes by car should take their rubbish home or to a public sorting point.
• The gas cylinder from an empty camping stove must be taken to its point of sale, either a shop or a filling station, where further safe handling of the cylinder is carried out.
• The packaging of fishing gear goes into a mixed packaging container. Take empty worm boxes or other containers with you – they can be reused.
• Take your wrecked fishing gear with you and transfer it to a municipal waste container. Fishing rods, hooks, etc., left in nature, can cause injuries to both wild animals and nature visitors.

• In the absence of a toilet, dig a hole, away from all water sources, trails or campgrounds, to satisfy the call of nature. When you’re done, cover the hole with soil and vegetation. NB! This also applies to used toilet paper.
• Do not throw used paper handkerchiefs and napkins into nature; instead, take them with you! They can be burned in a fire, thrown into a dry toilet or municipal waste container. In nature, it takes up to 2 years for them to decompose!
• Children’s diapers, sanitary towels, tampons and panty liners are municipal waste. Do not throw them into nature, dry toilets or campfires. In nature, their decomposition takes up to 75 years, and when they are burned, toxic gases and non-degradable residues are formed.
• Only empty bottles and containers of detergents, etc., are suitable for placement in a mixed packaging container.

• Animal feed packages may be placed among mixed package.
• A pet’s broken collar or toys are municipal waste.
• To clean your pet’s stool, carry a small bag with you. In areas intended for public use ̶ such as hiking trails, camping areas, campfire sites and other prepared objects ̶ the owner must clean up after their pet.
• Preferably dispose of pet droppings (without a bag, as it is municipal waste) into a dry toilet or dig a hole, away from any water sources, trails or campsites, for this purpose. Cover the hole with soil and vegetation.

The following waste cannot be left in nature or placed in any of our collection containers:

• hazardous waste: always take syringes and pharmaceutical residues with you and drop them off at a waste station or hazardous waste collection point
• waste electronic equipment: bring broken mobile phones, GPS devices, photo equipment, etc., with you, and drop the off at the nearest waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collection point or waste station
• batteries and accumulators: take them to any shop where they are sold