Bio bin is meant for food items that can organically degrade into compost.

Surprising and notable items are in bold.

• Bones (chicken, fish, etc.)

• Coffee filter/pad

• Eggshells

• Feathers

• Food scraps

• Frying fat (solidified), lard

• Hair

• House plants / flowers

• Small lawn clippings / lawn waste

• Leftovers

• Meat

• Newspapers for lining the can and preventing the food from sticking or freezing to the side. Do not use liberally! Only for the purpose of lining the can.

• Nutshells

• Paper towels (but not napkins!) This is local to Loerrach. Paper towels can degrade, while thick napkins (especially with pictures printed on the napkins) can NOT go into the bio bin.

• Potting soil (this can also be disposed of outside)

• Sawdust of raw wood / wood shavings (locally, Lörrach accepts this. Other areas in Germany might not accept this in bio)

• Tea bags (You can remove staples, but they will also be removed by a magnet at the compost plant.) Plastic tea bags belong in Restmüll.

• Vegetable peels

• Animal poop (Restmüll)

• Ash (Restmüll)

• Baking cups for muffins or cupcakes (Restmüll)

• Bandaids (Restmüll)

• "Biodegradable" plastic-like bags (our garbage company actually asks us to only use paper bags, not the plastic-like bags. See here for more info.)

• Candle wax (Restmüll). 💡Eco-tip: Consider melting it and making new candles

• Cat litter (Restmüll)

• Christmas trees:

  • • Kandern: these are picked up in Kandern. Check this calendar to see when yours can be picked up.

    • In Riedlingen and other villages, they are not picked up. You can drive your Christmas tree to this location to dispose of it.

• Cotton (Restmüll)

• Dead pets (hamsters, lizards, etc.). (Take to the vet or bury it on your property. Must be 50 cm deep and 1 meter from any public walkway. No burying in forest.)

• Hygiene products (Restmüll)

• Kleenex, face tissue (Restmüll)

• Large amounts of liquids. (Drain down the sink, or water plants outside.)

• Leather, lederhosen (Restmüll)

• Medication or pills (Restmüll) ⚠️Medication, even liquid medication, should never be dumped down the sink or toilet.

• Napkins (Restmüll). Yes, napkins are thicker than paper towels and cannot be put into bio. Napkins, with or without pictures printed on them, go to Restmüll.

• Painted or varnished wood, construction waste

  • The Kandern Recyclinghof does not take painted wood

  • You must take it to Kreismülldeponie Scheinberg, Kleines Wiesental

• Paper (Clean paper goes in the Papier bin)

• Plastic bags (Gelbe Sack). Even if a plastic bag contained food, it itself does not belong in the food bin. If you use a plastic bag to line your Bio Bin in your house, dump the contents out of the bag into the Bio Bin that you put in the street.

• Rocks (Dispose of outside)

• Soil (Large amounts go outside, but small amounts can go in the Bio Bin.)

• Toilet paper (flush used, non-used goes in Restmüll)

• Vacuum cleaner contents/bag

Ideally, there are 3 outcomes from the Bio system in Germany:

1. Energy reclamation: Methane gas from the bacteria fermenting the bio will generate heat and power

2. Fertilizer: Liquid Bio waste will ferment and turn into fertilizer

3. Soil: Solid Bio waste will become compost soil

Every two years, you will need to refresh your bio bin filter.

First step: activate the odor filter. If you never activated your filter, it's never too late to do it. Here's how: Open the lid, and rest the open lid against your Restmüllcontainer so that the lid is horizontal.

Heat a liter of water. Pour a quarter of that at a time over the holes in the lid, waiting about 20 seconds between each pouring for the water to be absorbed.

The filter consists of coconut fibers, so in the end there will be some brownish water coming out of the lid. Don't worry about it... the next rain will wash it off.

You should change the filter about every two years. Here's the filter instruction and purchase information for replacement filters in this link