Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [68]
* * *
One of the easiest ways to stay up to date with current green issues is to follow your favourite green blog – check out the list at www.bestgreenblogs.com. You can search by various categories, including specific countries like Germany.
* * *
* * *
HOW TO RECYCLE A TEABAG
It might be something of a national joke, but recycling a teabag really does require all but one of the five rubbish bins found in German homes.
Germans are Europe’s biggest recyclers. Into the organic waste bin (Biomüll), goes biodegradable waste – garden rubbish, potato peelings, food leftovers, coffee granules and used tea bags (minus metal clip, string and paper tag). The paper (Papier) bin takes recyclable paper, waxed and nonwaxed cardboard and teabag paper tags. There’s a third Grüne Punkt bin for recyclable items – including packaging materials, margarine tubs, empty food tins, cans and teabag clips. Except for glass – which obviously a tea bag doesn’t contain – everything left over, including the synthetic string on a teabag, goes in the fourth bin for residuary waste (Restmüll).
Bins found in train stations and airports are slightly different: Glas (glass), Papier (paper), Verpackung (packaging) and Restmüll (residuary waste).
Empty mineral-water bottles (both plastic and glass) plus beer and other bottles are another recycling story. When you buy these in the shop, many have a Pfand (returnable deposit), usually between €0.08 and €0.25 per bottle. This is to persuade even the laziest of consumers to return their empties to one of 100,000 specified shops and points of sale countrywide. Germans usually save these up until they have a bag full (or three) to return. Be prepared to wait if you find yourself behind such a customer in a supermarket queue!
Per capita, Germany produces roughly 10kg of rubbish daily (by comparison, the United States produces roughly 15kg, Switzerland 12kg, Finland 8kg and Sweden 7kg).
* * *
Return to beginning of chapter
Pollution
When it comes to addressing pollution, Germany might recently have blotted an otherwise fairly enviable copybook. Until 2006, the country was seen as the European leader in reducing carbon-dioxide emissions and offsetting the effects of acid rain and river pollution. However, new carbon-emission quotas for industry announced in the middle of that year were criticised for being unambitious or even lax. Environmental groups accused Angela Merkel’s government of not taking its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol seriously enough.
This controversy is a far cry from the period from 1987 to 2000, when Germany proudly achieved the environmental turnaround of the European century with the success of the Rhine Action Programme. Declared dead by 1970, the Upper Rhine was spawning salmon and sea trout again by 1997 – for the first time in 50 years. The transformation was all the more remarkable given that some 15% of the world’s chemical industry plants are settled along its banks.
* * *
Flora and Vegetation of the Wadden Sea Islands and Coastal Areas, by KS Diikema and WJ Wolff (eds), remains indispensable for anyone spending time in any of the three Wadden Sea (Wattenmeer) National Parks.
* * *
A longer-term Action Plan High Water was put in place until 2020, working on restoring other riverbanks and important adjoining meadows, in a bid to stave off damaging floods.
In 2002 the government was still polishing its green credentials when it stepped up an ecological tax on petrol, diesel, heating oil, natural gas and electricity. The same year it pledged to reduce Germany’s 1990 level of greenhouse gas emissions by 21% between 2008 and 2012 – by 2004, its emissions were already 17.5% down on those notched up in 1990.
* * *
Schleswig-Holstein generates nearly 38% of its power from its 2500-plus wind turbines.
* * *
But in 2006 the German government dialled down on its greenhouse gas plans, asking that industry cut back only 0.6% on carbon emissions between 2008 and 2012. It also gave many business free carbon allowances