Restaffaldet og madaffaldet hører til i forskellige beholdere.

Because Danish usually writes compound nouns as one word.

• restaffald = rest
  • affald
• madaffald = mad
  • affald

This is very common in Danish. The last part is the main noun, so affald decides the grammatical gender and the ending.

-et is the definite singular ending for a neuter noun.

The base noun is affald, which is neuter, so:

• affald = waste
• affaldet = the waste

The same ending appears on the whole compound:

• restaffald → restaffaldet
• madaffald → madaffaldet

So the ending is attached to the full compound noun, not just to affald by itself.

Because they are being treated as categories or types of waste, not as separate countable items.

In Danish, category names like this are often singular, especially in instructions or sorting rules. English can do something similar with mass nouns, as in food waste or paper recycling.

So the sentence is not talking about many individual pieces of waste. It is talking about two waste categories.

Yes, you can sometimes say restaffald og madaffald, especially in headings, labels, or very general statements.

But in a full sentence about known sorting categories, the definite form restaffaldet and madaffaldet sounds very natural. It gives the sense of the residual-waste category and the food-waste category.

For example:

• On a bin label: Madaffald
• In a rule or explanation: Madaffaldet hører til ...

So both are possible, but they are used a bit differently.

At høre til is a fixed expression meaning things like:

• to belong
• to go
• to be assigned to

In this kind of context, it means where something should be placed or sorted.

So this is not about literal hearing. Even though høre by itself means to hear, høre til has a different meaning as a set expression.

Because Danish verbs do not change form for singular and plural in the present tense.

So you get:

• jeg hører
• du hører
• han hører
• vi hører
• de hører

The verb form stays the same no matter who or what the subject is. That is why hører is correct even with restaffaldet og madaffaldet.

This is normal Danish main-clause word order: the finite verb comes in the second position.

Here the structure is:

• Restaffaldet og madaffaldet = subject
• hører = finite verb
• til i forskellige beholdere = the rest of the sentence

Danish is a V2 language, which means the finite verb usually comes second in main clauses.

Because the adjective has to match the noun form.

Here, beholdere is plural, so the adjective takes the plural/common -e form:

• forskellige beholdere = different containers

Compare:

• forskellig = common gender singular
• forskelligt = neuter singular
• forskellige = plural or definite form

So forskellige is used because beholdere is plural.

Beholdere is the indefinite plural of beholder.

The full pattern is:

• en beholder = a container
• beholderen = the container
• beholdere = containers
• beholderne = the containers

So in the sentence, i forskellige beholdere means in different containers.

Because Danish uses i when something goes in/inside a container.

That fits this situation: the waste belongs in different containers.

Using på would suggest on something, not inside it, so i is the natural choice here.

Yes. That is also natural Danish.

The difference is mainly one of nuance:

• hører til i = belongs in, goes in
• skal i = must go in, should go in

So hører til i sounds a bit like classification or proper placement, while skal i sounds a bit more direct and instruction-like. Both work well in waste-sorting contexts.