"WE lost our hearts twice when we worked in Heidelberg for three months - once to the frequent, highly efficient transport network (a tram every half-hour on Christmas Day?) and once to the equally efficient waste disposal and recycling system.

Recycling hinges on the state-of-the-art factory on the outskirts of town, where everything is sorted and reused. There are no fumes and no polluting smoke. And landfill hardly exists.

So how does it work there, and for that matter, over most of Germany? First, it's an attitude - that the reuse of everything that can be reused is important. For the first years of this way of life you need to have it enforced - but now the Abfallpolizei are not necessary!

In practical terms, every household has three small wheelie bins. One is for non-recyclable waste, which normally has little in it. The next is for organic and kitchen waste, which is collected weekly and goes straight to the city's compost-making plant to be resold at low prices. Finally the plastics and metal bin, which is sorted and recycled.

At the corner of every major street, not more than two minutes walk apart, are very large containers to take all paper and cardboard. They are emptied several times a week, usually at night.

And by every major tramstop there are standard bins for green, brown and white glass, so as you go for your tram to work in the morning you can dispose of your bottles at the same time. These too get emptied several times a week - they have to be in a wine-growing area!

But that's not quite the end of the story. The same separation of waste extends to bus stations and railway platforms - not any old bin but one with several compartments for the different products.

It's a way of life, and though the German press makes many jokes about agonising decisions over disposing of unusual objects, it works.

And cost? Initially there is a sizeable outlay and there is a charge on their equivalent of the council tax, but after some years a break-even point is reached from the sale of recycled items and compost.

Heidelberg is not a rich city, with a quarter of the populace under 25, but it's doing a good job of meeting the EU target for recycling by 2010 - I suspect it's already reached it."

CANON GUY SMITH