Switzerland just may be one of the most expensive countries anywhere. I mean…6 bucks for 10 eggs, 15 dollars/pound for chicken. Beef? Pork? Forget about it! These prices make NYC look like Kansas. And it doesn't end with the food. Everything costs 50-150% more than in the US. Wow. Nice to meet you, fiscal discipline. Other expensive Swiss treats: Garbage bags. Yep, not kidding! The Swiss require you to put red stickers on your garbage bags before discarding them into the dumpster. Each sticker costs 3 dollars, and the garbage bags are pretty small…about the size of a large bathroom garbage can. Wow. Just the cost of diapers alone (now not only paying double the cost for them here vs home, but now also paying to throw them away in the trash) is going to put a dent in the monthly bottom line! I tell you what, one way to ensure that a family recycles every last piece of anything recyclable is to charge for garbage. Effective method! (More on recycling later). I've even tried pulling the sneaky American trick...trying to dump a dirty diaper here or there in a dumpster when we are out and about-but to no avail! All dumpsters are padlocked! It is virtually impossible to find an open public garbage can. They really make you pay to throw your stuff away, there is just no getting around it. Vignettes. Yep, you need a vignette to ride your bike, and a vignette to drive on the highways. We found out the hard way that you apparently need to pay to drive on the highways in Austria as well…but that is a story for another time! And, Parking. Every last parking lot in Switzerland has a meter! We learned that lesson on our very first trip to IKEA. As we went to exit the parking lot with a nice line of cars behind us we realized that we forgot to pay for parking! Apparently the Swiss don't take kindly to backing up to let uninformed Americans reverse their way back to validate their parking ticket! Live and learn.
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Paying for throwing things away? Wow! Think of how that would change America. The Swiss must not have many places to put garbage. I assume littering is a crime there as well?
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Colleen. It really would change America. It works because money, unfortunately, is an effective motivator. It is a pain to adjust, but it is really for the better. And, once you get used to it, it makes sense and feels good!
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