Imagine relaxing in a beautiful quaint town in the Swiss Alps, close to the first UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Alps, the Aletsch Glacier, and you suddenly look up to find a flying truck. This is no simple truck though. It is a 7.5 tonne lorry which is carried using the mountain cable-car to, well, collect garbage from this town.
Known to be a popular tourist destination, Bettmeralp is a car-free village accessible only using a large car cableway. It is a popular and award-winning summer and winter resort, friendly for families, and ‘boasts’ of 300 sunny days in a year!
It also boasts grand views of the four-thousand-meter-high peaks of the Valais including the Weisshorn, Dom, and Matterhorn. The resort is acclaimed for “Families Welcome” quality certificate and offers ample services for children, including pushchair-friendly hiking trails.
Clearly a favorite spot for skiers and snowboarders of all abilities, the village is bound to have a fair share of rubbish. And in order to get this cleaned and keep the village spick and span, the rubbish collecting service was introduced.
There is no road access to this village, and that does not excuse the garbage trucks either. And clearly, there is no system like in some other nations where they would segregate waste and burn those that can be done. Or even composting for that matter.
The flying garbage truck will be a cheap process by any means, and not to forget the slightly risky feature of it being carried in all its weight through cables.
Probably just another interesting feature added to this town – and perhaps even an additional marketing gimmick for those who enjoy living on the fast and dangerous lanes. Must add to a bucket list, surely.
