Drink Bottles & Cans

Most drink bottles and cans purchased in Finland include a deposit redeemable on return. Deposit varies from 10c to 40c. Ask at your local shop how to do this.

Recycling

Most apartment complexes in Finland support recycling of a variety of waste. Trash bins are sorted according to the following:

Bio-waste (Biojäte)
YES: food waste, including food that has gone bad, coffee grounds, kitchen paper, fruit peels etc.
NO: chemicals, glass, metals, cat litter
Bio-waste is processed into compost. Some municipalities first extract biogas from bio-waste, which is then converted into heat and electricity.

Paper (Paperi)
YES: newspapers and magazines, advertisement flyers, envelopes etc.
NO: wet or very dirty paper
Recycled paper is used to make newspapers or toilet paper.

Carton (Kartonki)
YES: milk cartons, cardboard, paper bags, carton packages
NO: wet or very dirty carton
Recycled carton is used to make kitchen paper rolls, for example. The aluminium in carton packages is also recycled.

Glass (Lasi)
YES: glass containers (bottles and jars)
NO: glass objects, glassware, mirrors, porcelain
Recycled glass is used to make new glass containers.

Metal (Metali)
YES: metal items and packages whose main material is metal
NO: electrical devices, batteries
Different metals are machine sorted and used as material for new products.

Plastic (Muovi)
In some cases there are bins for plastics. If not put to combustible waste (polttokelpoinen jäte). If there is no combustible waste, put to mixed waste (sekäjäte).
YES: yogurt & butter tubs, cheese & meat packaging, shampoo & soap packaging, plastic wrapping, bags and polystyrene

Batteries (Paristot)
Batteries for small electrical devices can be recycled in most food shops. Ask at the shop check out for details.

Other Waste
Contact us if you have other waste that you do not know how to sort!

Electricity

Switch off lights when leaving a room.

If you have a sauna, switch it on 30 minutes before you intend to use it and off immediately after use.

If you have floor heating, keep it low at around setting 2.

Water

Don’t leave the tap running.

When washing dishes fill the sink with a suitable amount of hot water. Do not continually run the hot water tap to wash dishes.

Heating

Turn down radiators in rooms that are not being used or if you are too warm in a room that is being used.

Avoid covering radiators with long curtains.