Riina Kindlam, Tallinn
The break-down: EHITUS – building (both verb/activity and noun), to build = ehitama. Jäätmed = waste. Most Estonian-speakers who have spent most, or all of their lives abroad will call garbage prügi or praht. That's perfectly correct. Prügi/tünn (garbage can), prahi/hunnik (pile of waste), prügi/auto or -veok ([/i]veo/auto[/i]) are still part of everyday life and speech in Estonia today. And even though a lot of people call a dump or landfill site a prügi/mägi ("garbage hill"), its official name is prügila.
JÄÄTMED (waste) is a more specific and formal term for that which jääb – (remains) post-production, post-building, post-party. Jääk = what's left over. Toidu/jäägid = food scraps. The term is almost always used in the plural (jäätmed vs sing. jääde) and implies that although usually no longer fit for its initial use, it can still be used as raw, re-usable material, e.g. vana/paber ("old", i.e. used paper), vana/metall and tootmis/jääde – manufacturing waste.
