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Towel thrown
Top Swiss negotiator resigns
Michael Ambühl, Switzerland’s top diplomat in ongoing tax and banking negotiations with both the United States and countries in Europe, will step down at the end of August, it has been announced. [...]
Swiss politics
The big bad foreigner in poster art
Illegal money
Cabinet drafts unique law on dictators’ assets
Swiss accord
Chinese leader holds out promise of more deals
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang says a free trade accord with Switzerland should serve as an example for closer relations with other European countries. He believes a deal with the Swiss finance industry will also boost the economy in Switzerland. [...]
Free trade accord
Chinese prime minister praises deal with Swiss
Swiss banking woes
Minister says end to US tax dispute in sight
Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf says a resolution may be not far off to end a long-running dispute with the United States over Swiss banks accused of helping wealthy Americans evade billions of dollars of taxes. [...]
Changes at the top
Surprise shake-up marks Glencore Xstrata meeting
Formula for success
Chinese parents drive baby milk powder boom
Quest for identity
Artist creates his own Japan in Switzerland
My name is David "Takashi" Favrod. I was born on July 2, 1982, in Kobe, Japan, to a Japanese mother and a Swiss father. When I was six months old, my parents decided to come and live in Vionnaz, a small village in the lower Valais. [...]
Basel’s Schola Cantorum
Old music becomes new art
Medical advances
Gender testing to help avoid genetic diseases
A new test called Microsort will allow couples with certain serious hereditary disorders to choose the sex of their baby in order to reduce the chance of passing on an active form of their disease. [...]
Aerial mapping
Successful takeoff for Swiss commercial drones
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In depth
Bag ban
Plastic shopping bags get the boot in parliament
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Soon it'll be BYOB, or "bring your own bag" (Keystone)
Both houses of Swiss parliament have voted to forbid the distribution of plastic shopping bags, and it’s now up to the government to put the ban into action. Advocates say it will set a good example and prevent pollution.
Environment Minister Doris Leuthard said a ban was unnecessary, as the Swiss system of garbage disposal currently works well.
However, those in favour of the new law noted that plastic shopping bags require considerable petroleum and energy to produce. In addition, it takes hundreds of years for a plastic bag to decompose out in the open. And, when plastic is burned, as is most of Switzerland’s garbage, dioxins are released.
For these reasons, the House of Representatives voted 110 to 73 to ban the bags, which are generally used for just 25 minutes on average. The Senate vote was much tighter, with 18 to 17 in favour.
The 3,000 tonnes of shopping bags in Switzerland account for 0.5 per cent of the plastic used annually.
Rubbish trade
Digging for treasure in the waste market
Swiss residents produced 707 kg per person of municipal waste in 2010, 40 per cent above the European Union average, but with a model disposal and recycling system in place, dealing with that waste has become a profitable business. [...]
Room to grow in Swiss plastic recycling
Switzerland’s recycling figures for plastic drink bottles are at an all-time high, but there is no nationwide system for recycling other types of plastic. [...]
