Guests not recycling

[AngloDutch]

Our council has just introduced 95% recycling this year. Because we live next door to our rental home, we can keep an eye on what's going on.

We have removed the general waste bin from the house, as although we have a container for 'other waste' we do not want to make it possible for guests to be able to put anything into a black bin bag, as this gives them the option to be lazy. Here in the north of the Netherlands, our containers for non-recyclable waste and plastic/tin are collected every 4 weeks (each, two weeks apart), with the green container being collected every 2 weeks in between. Because our plastic/tin is being picked up every 4 weeks, we have to take stringent measures to keep everything as hygienic as possible.

We have placed 4 boxes into the utility room - glass - paper - plastic, tin & plastic lined cartons - non-recyclables (mostly used kitchen roll, crisp and other foil-lined wrappers & kitchen foil), plus a green waste bucket in the kitchen. We also ask guests to seal all pedal-bin bags (nappies, etc.)

During the 'tour' which we do with the guests of the whole property, we explain that recycling is compulsory, with fines for us and non-pickup of the containers if the inspection teams uncover anything irregular. We have added written instructions on how guests must recycle and ask them to wash out all plastic, tin and paper cartons (yoghurt, etc.) before placing them into the boxes. You can't imagine the smell of an unwashed plastic container that contained raw chicken or minced meat after standing for almost a month.
Due to the fact that our plastic and tin is only picked up every 4 weeks, it is put straight into the container and not sealed in bags, as otherwise we would be out of space, so making sure that they are properly washed out is a priority.

As summer approaches, we will have to be even more alert to keep the flies away from the containers. Here, many families have horses, so we have a lot of flies at certain times of the year.

We often have to take out, for example, plastic from the green container. Because, if the following guests see plastic in the wrong container, then they will only add to it.

Most guests are happy to comply, although we have to regularly re-sort things like used kitchen paper, because they think that it goes with 'paper'.

We do realize that guests are on holiday but we tell them that these are not our rules, and if everyone does their bit than the following guests are not inconvenienced with maggots or stinking bins.