bæsjpose

Norway is by far the cleanest country I´ve ever been too.  Sure, the population density is low, but nonetheless, staten (the state-government) enforces strong regler (rules) regarding taking care of the environment.  It also helps that the Norwegian people seem to really respect these rules.

I don´t think I´ve seen any hundskit (dog poop) på siden av veien (on the side of the road), in a hage (yard), or i et offentlig sted (a public place).  And I have seen many hunder (dogs).  At any small matbutikk (grocery store), you can find small black bags called hundeposer (dog bags) or bæsjposer (poop bags) that are small and easy to slip into any lomme (pocket).

I have four nøkkler (keys) for my leilighet (apartment)-one for rommet mitt (my room), one for postboksen min (my mail box), one for my sportsbod (sports stall-literally a small stall in a garage type place that I can lock up for example a bike, skis, etc.  Right now I just have my dogs bur-crate in the sportsbod).  The last nøkkel is for the søppelkasse (garbage bin) outside.  What I didn´t realize until just today is that I am supposed to sort my søppel into different colored poser.  When the søppel gets picked up and brought to the waste treatment plant, an optical device sorts the poser.  I´m sure other countries use this system or something similar to it and I think it is a great idea.  Better yet, you can go to some place called the ´service center´(which I haven´t yet figured out where and what this is) and pick up the poser gratis.  Now I just need to learn what kind of søppel goes in which color pose.

The only thing I see on the street as far as søppel is used snusposer (tobacco chew bags), måseskit (sea gull poop), and the occasional package from a late-night pølse (hot dog) or kebab.  Otherwise, cleanliness is quickly noticed.

Another thing that just came to mind involves shopping carts.  Although they don´t have anything to do with søppel, if you want to use a shopping cart in a store, you have to put in a coin (worth a couple of US dollars) to get the cart loose from the others.  You get your mynt (coin) back when you return your cart to it´s proper place.  I thought it was very strange at first and then realized that it is a great way for the company to save money on labor because employees don´t have to constantly drive the carts back in order and B) the parking lot and store look much cleaner.  Pretty clever, I think.

I appreciate the respect and cleanliness the Norwegian people show for their veier (roads), hager (yards), natur (nature), and butikker (stores).

i have a key for the middle one to dispose of color coordinated sorted søppelposer