Before moving to Finland, I had heard how sustainable and environmentally focused the country is, but experiencing this firsthand has been a fantastic experience.
One of the first things one notices when they move to Finland is how they sort their waste in seven different ways. This is done throughout Finland to help with waste management to ensure that the waste in Finland can be reused or recycled. By doing this, it makes the lifecycle of products last longer, and it reduces the overuse of different products. It may seem challenging to sort waste this many ways, but it is easy to do! Paper, cardboard, bio (compost), metal, glass, plastics and everything else (called mixed waste) get separated into separate containers to allow for recycling and reusing these products.
Besides this, Finland has a law known as "Everyone's Rights," where you can walk anywhere in nature without needing to follow a trail. You can walk on any land without a fenced-in area with a no-trespassing sign. This law also allows someone to walk and pick berries and mushrooms in the forest if not in a fenced area. I could partake in this law in the spring (when it was not snowy), and I went berry picking with my friends! I picked blueberries and lingonberries throughout the woods for two hours and then went to a local picnic.
