After our Krakow trip, we found a letter waiting for us in Zurich. With some Google translate help I now have physical evidence that the Swiss do in fact live up to their crazy reputation. Life in Switzerland is just a little different than home…

Sehr geehrte Frau Doll

Unsere Kontrollequipe hat am Donnerstag, 15. Mai 2008 eine separate Nachsammlung zur ordentlichen Kehrichtabfuhr durchgeführt. Dabei wurde in einem zur falschen Zeit bereitgestellten Zuri-Sack Adressmaterial gefunden, welches eindeutig Ihrem Haushalt zugeordnet werden kann.

Einerseits stören herumstehende Sacke das Quartierbild, andererseits locken diese Stadtfüchse, Marder und Katzen an. Für sie sind Abfallsäcke im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes ein gefundenes Fressen. Wenn ein Tier darin nach Nahrung sucht, sieht die Umgebung danach entsprechend verschmutzt aus.

Helfen Sie uns, die Stadt sauber zu halten und stellen Sie die Abfallsäcke erst am Morgen des Abholtages vor 07.00 Uhr bereit. Wir danken Ihnen fur Ihre Unterstutzung

Bitte beachten Sie, dass die Verantwortung der korrekten Kehrichtbereitstellung beim Verursacher des Abfalls liegt. Bei einem weiteren Vorfall werden wir Sie bei der Stadtpolizei zuhanden des Statthalters verzeigen müssen.

And the translation…

Dear Ms. Doll

On Thursday, May 15, 2008, our inspection team carried out a separate post-collection for the regular garbage disposal. Address material was found in a Zuri-Sack provided at the wrong time, which can be clearly assigned to your household.

On the one hand, sacks standing around disturb the neighborhood picture, on the other hand these city foxes, martens and cats attract. For them, rubbish bags are literally a thing to eat. When an animal searches for food in it, the environment looks accordingly dirty.

Help us to keep the city clean and do not provide the rubbish bags until the morning of the pick-up day before 7 a.m. Thank you for your support

Please note that the correct waste disposal is the responsibility of the person who created the waste. In the event of another incident, we will have to direct you to the city police for the attention of the governor.

In summary, garbage is handled in a very careful manner here. You need to purchase special bags from the market (where they are stored with the hard liquor and cigarettes) called Zurisacks which is essentially a per-bag tax on garbage, which is a great idea. If you don’t use the proper bag or put it out at the wrong time (like we did), the authorities will dig through it looking for personally identifying information. Once they’ve figured out who you are, they send you a letter to let you know that they’re on to you and if you do it again they will be knocking at your door. Did you catch the part about how we are part of the fox/weasel/cat axis of evil? We had heard stories of the garbage police but had never believed them, until now.