The hardest part is removing the packaging

[jRuutu 2,475]

 

 

In the sea of rough-looking apartment buildings stands a building that is not like the rest. The building is modern, covered completely with a reflecting surface. The contrast is shocking. Other buildings in the area look like they are still in the 1990's, not much has changed from the outside and more than likely same is true on the inside, the buildings look run down and beaten up. The modern building is home to the wealthy, whereas the regular, working-class, people live in the other buildings.

One of the residents in the modern building is Moscow Menace center Jarmo Ruutu, who has lived in the building for around a year now.  Always laying low and not making too much noise about himself has served Jarmo Ruutu well, the majority of residents were not aware that he lives in the building. That has since changed. The Finnish center has been the main talking point in the resident meetings lately after CCTV footage captured a figure that looked just like Jarmo Ruutu dumping batteries into the compost can. The residents of the building take great pride in recycling and sorting their waste, a decision that has received praise from local media and city officials as reducing waste and the carbon footprint is something every major city in Russia wants to do.

 

Jarmo Ruutu spoke in front of the residents of the building on Sunday. Instead of denying the footage or trying to come up with excuses, Jarmo added fuel to the fire by stating dropping batteries into compost cans is something that brings him  "a lot of joy". Ruutu continued by explaining the whole process. According to his own words, after each practice, he drives around the local hardware shops and buys different types of batteries. Then he pays the local kids to take the batteries out of the plastic packages and to drop them in a bag that Ruutu then uses to dump the batteries into the compost cans.

 

At the beginning of the resident meeting those present wondered if Ruutu was serious or not. The whole room was convinced after Ruutu pulled out a mobile app that had over 8000€ worth of purchases in the last two months - all on batteries.   Many were naturally curious about one question specifically: "Why?". Ruutu described his love of throwing batteries into the compost cans as a "rich man's fun", playing tennis without pants, drinking beer while teaching dogs to learn math, it's a taboo of some sort, something you should not do.

 

Before leaving the resident meeting Ruutu offered anyone interested a chance to come with him to throw some batteries into the compost can on the next day, but at least based on the CCTV footage nobody took him on the offer.

 

The residents of the building have since tried to come up with plans on how to stop Ruutu from throwing batteries into the compost can. Not wanting to create too much trouble for a player playing in a team that is reportedly popular among the leaders of the country, instead, the residents have ordered another compost can, but the new compost can is named it differently, only known by the rest of the residents.  The old compost can is left as is for Ruutu, and for anyone else, to throw batteries into.

[Gustav 6,469]

My complex apparently used to do recycling but got rid of it years ago because people kept putting all the wrong stuff in the recycling bins. It annoys me because I'm fairly conscious about that and if I want to do it I have to take a drive to some community drop-off.

 

And then they got rid of the drop-off that was actually convenient for me to visit and made the next-closest one a 10-minute drive instead of almost walkable. Almost as if they don't want me getting rid of my batteries.

[Daniel Janser 2,216]

9 hours ago, Gustav said:

My complex apparently used to do recycling but got rid of it years ago because people kept putting all the wrong stuff in the recycling bins. It annoys me because I'm fairly conscious about that and if I want to do it I have to take a drive to some community drop-off.

 

And then they got rid of the drop-off that was actually convenient for me to visit and made the next-closest one a 10-minute drive instead of almost walkable. Almost as if they don't want me getting rid of my batteries.

It can be a pain in the ass to be 'green' sometimes. In Switzerland you have a communal drop off for all recycling goods (paper, cardboard, PET bottles, plastic, electronics, batteries, cans, tins you name it). Composte and 'regular' garbage is collected by the 'trash men' (I do not know the proper English word and by no means do I mean to say that these people are trash). Once a month, clubs or school classes will collect recyclable paper to earn some additional money for camps etc. as they are paid a certain amount of money per kilo collected. For any electronic gadget (fridges, computer, HiFi, television etc) you pay a disposal fee in advance when you buy the thing and every shop who sells such goods, needs to take them back for proper disposal (even if you did not buy it there). Swiss people are encouraged to recycle as the bags for the 'regular trash' (35l or 9.23 US liq Gal volume) cost around 2.70 Swiss Franks or USD 3.04 (it depends on the canton you live in). So one is keen on recycle as much as possible. We make it a weekly event and bring our stuff to the disposal site on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and combine it with our shopping, when we have to use the car anyway...

[Gustav 6,469]

4 hours ago, Daniel Janser said:

For any electronic gadget (fridges, computer, HiFi, television etc) you pay a disposal fee in advance when you buy the thing and every shop who sells such goods, needs to take them back for proper disposal (even if you did not buy it there).

 

This is really cool; in the parts of the US I'm familiar with you usually have to wait for a community event for this.

 

I volunteered at one once through part of a student organization, and out of everyone in that it was only me and one girl who also wasn't part of club leadership who showed up (it was cold and rainy too, so fun times). That by itself didn't mean much, but cut to the next meeting where one of our leaders talked about how "we" went and it was a great experience--student clubs telling themselves they're changing the world is already fairly dumb in most cases, but that took the cake.

Edited February 14 by Gustav

[Daniel Janser 2,216]

3 minutes ago, Gustav said:

That by itself didn't mean much, but cut to the next meeting where one of our leaders talked about how "we" went and it was a great experience--student clubs telling themselves they're changing the world is already fairly dumb in most cases, but that took the cake.

That is first class douchbaggery right there. How did they know that it was a great experience? For all he know you and your co-ed could have pulled your back and cut your hands open smh

[Baozi 1,662]

I got yelled at for throwing batteries in the trash

[Victor 11,021]

Can you throw vapes in the same place as batteries

[Gustav 6,469]

7 hours ago, Victor said:

Can you throw vapes in the same place as batteries

My department had a safety meeting a couple weeks ago where it was specified that we are NOT allowed to vape in the lab. I’m not sure who prompted that memo. 
 

More to come on our vape disposal guidelines as I learn them. 

[Daniel Janser 2,216]

10 hours ago, Victor said:

Can you throw vapes in the same place as batteries

no expert on the matter, but they look like electronic gadgets which in Switzerland is a category of its own. I do not really know what happens there, but believe they are disassembled to salvage (rare) metals...

[JCarson 744]

This article amused me greatly, first it is a quick tale of the players life outside of hockey, it adds depth to the story.  But secondly and maybe more important is provides a humorous place to point out an important aspect of life.  Being a good global citizen and being conscious of our environmental impact. Great work bringing these two worlds of thought together in a fun article.  Would love to see more imaginative articles like this.  I give this article a 9/10