What Europe has to learn about waste management is a long time ago. But it's one thing to hear, and seeing things with your eyes is different. At the end of August, our editor Anastasia of the Orders went to the nearby Finnish city of Lappeienrant to see how the garbage is collected and processed.

In order to start by telling what waste management requirements exist in Finland. Separate collection and shipment for recycling are binding on every citizen of the country. Multi-family houses should have their own containers for different types of debris: carton, glass, metal, biowaste. In Lappenrant, the owners of private houses that do not have such boxes usually use public eco-points for paper, paperboard, metal and glass located at supermarkets and other places with free access. Household bio-waste is removed separately or the owner is composing them in his yard in a special container, in which case transport is not required. This method of disposal is quite common among Finns.

South Kareliyah has become one of the regions of Finland participating in the National Life IP Project, which aims to reduce waste generation by 2020, maximize recycling and reuse of debris, limit incineration and disposal of unprocessed materials.

Every home, apartment, gift is required to pay for the removal and disposal of waste - the amount of " ecosbor " depends on the type of real estate and the nature of the services. It now stands at 25 euros per year for ordinary apartments, 20 euros for peri-urban homes. The cost includes the transport and recycling of waste, as well as the disposal of untreated garbage in landfills. As the representative of one of the processors told me, Ecosbor covers free or non-profit services, such as the collection and processing of insects, hazardous waste, and the salaries of the employees of the waste reception stations, information and counselling. Of these, the establishment of eco-points and refuse reception stations is partially funded.

In Lappenrant, one of the public spaces with TBT containers is located at the Prism supermarket. There's a lot of paperboard press and a few quite fit boxes for glass, paper, metal and plastic.

According to the director of the Rhysto Punkkinen shop I was able to interview, the Finns are actively using containers: only one carton in a year brings around 280,000 kilograms. And you're willing to believe that, while we talked to Risto, dozens of people brought trash here.