Sorting rubbish has always been a big problem in Poland mainly because of central heating where we could burn varied types of materials, including plastic, cardboard and paper. This has really damaged our environment and resulted in extreme amounts of smog that is very harmful for our health. Only a few years ago we could easily notice piles of rubbish in nearby forests. People were abandoning old electronic devices, tyres, bottles and plastic containers.

This was a very common „landscape” in our neighbourhood.

We kept asking ourselves a question „ why do people do it?”. The only anwer we came up with was the money. It was too expensive to sort litter. In order to save some money, people decided to go to th enearby forest at night and drop their waste. Another very common habit was to throw litter into public bins. We could notice people walking with big plastic bags full of rubbish and leaving them in small public bins in the streets.

Fortunately, the government has noticed the importance of this problem and decided to make it easier and cheaper for citizens.

Cities have introduced special plastic bags to sort rubbish. In Rybnik sorting started on 1st July 2013. There are 5 colours of bags where we can leave specific products:

YELLOW BAGS-  plastic and metal containers

WHITE BAGS- transparent glass and bottles

BLUE BAGS- cardboard and paper

GREEN BAGS- coloured glass and bottles

BROWN BAGS- natural waste such as grass, leaves, etc.

Apart from sorting rubbish we produce every day, we are also able to recycle old furniture and electronic device. There are two days a year (in spring and in autumn) when big lorries come and collect all „king size” rubbish.

Our students decided to check if habitants do follor the rules of sorting rubbish in Rybnik.

They went to our local company „EKO” , which is responsible for recycling and collecting rubbish, and talked to the employees about the real situation in our city.

Last year when people had to buy plastic bags in special places there were only 30% of habitants  sorting rubbish.

Now the situation has changed drastically. Plastic bags are available in every supermarket, which are much easier to obtain.

Also the timetable of  collecting rubbish has changed. It used to be collected once a month, which was definitely too rare and it also might have forced people to drop rubbish in the streets. What is more, if people wanted to have their bin collecten twice a month, they had to order it individually and pay extra. 

The price for one bin for one collection per month was about 20 zł and one plastic bag cost 1,20 zł.

Now the reality is much better. The bins are collected twice a month and the price is much lower.

We pay 15zł per month (bin is taken twice a month and the price is the same even if we have 2 bins) and the bags are much cheaper too. We can buy a pack of bags ( 10 pieces) for about 6 zł.

Every year we receive a schedule with dates of waste collecting. There is one in each house/flat that makes us remember to put the bins outside.

This idea has definitely encouraged people to sort rubbish and help to recycle other materials.

Hopefully Poland will follow the ecologically friendly procedures and our country will not be seen as one of the biggest„ plastic bag user” in Europe.