Garbage, Rubbish and Waste

2013-05-07T11:09:00.001+02:00

English Report From Green Living in Europe

We have now been to Hamburg and visited our group members there. We have learnt a lot, and each and one of us has written one report in Norwegian and one in English. The English report was a summary of the Norwegian one.

Waste in Hamburg and Bergen

Recycling, reuse, and distance heating are all important elements in environmental politic. Hamburg was elected as the greenest city of 2011 in Europe, but in which extent are the city and its citizens using these factors? What can a small city located on the west coast of Norway learn from the million town Hamburg? Everything can get better, so what can the greenest city of 2011 do to improve their environmental situation? These questions are interesting to discuss because of the ongoing global warming and because it is important that the different countries in the world help each other to solve this world wide problem.

Hamburg is a typical example of a city that has gone through, and is still in, a period of urbanization. Most of the citizens is located around the city center were most of the people also work. With 1, 8 inhabitants living in the city, there are produced a lot of waste. Almost every household in Hamburg have their own sorting system, but in different sizes. Some households only sort biological waste and paper, while others also sort metal, plastic and glass. The possibilities for recycling in Hamburg are fantastic: They have as much as 13 abilities were waste is reformed to new objects. In addition to these, Hamburg has four huge refuse destructors. One of them, the largest and most famous

one, is located in Stellingen west from Hamburg. Here are both normal waste and biological waste brought in large trucks, and it is burned into ashes that could be used for building materials to for instance streets. The environmental situation at the refuse destructor was in 1973 not very good. The different emissions were extremely high, and the pollution was not sustainable at all. This got better for each year, and only 17 years later, all of the emissions were considerable improved. Here are some good examples:

- Chlorine emissions were reduced from 100 mg/Nm³ to 10 mg/Nm³

- Dust emissions were reduced from 150 mg/Nm³ to 10 mg/Nm³

- Sulphur emissions were reduced from 1000 mg/Nm³ to only 50 mg/Nm³

Such large constructions cost a lot of money, not just to build, but also to operate. The refuse destructors in Hamburg actually have more capacity than there is waste in the city. If the destructors run low on garbage, the city will lose a great amount of money. Therefore, they import waste from other countries, especially Great Britain. This leads to another environmental problem: Large trucks carrying waste the whole way from Great Britain is causing high CO²emissions which is not sustainable for our environment. The only good argument the lecturer at the refuse destructor had to this, was that the trucks would drive anyways.

Some of the waste that is burned at the refuse destructors are also used to warm up houses by distance heating, but according to the lecturer, Hamburg has a far better potential than what is used now.

To understand the waste situation in Hamburg, it is a good idea to look at the different parts of the city. St. Pauli and Hafencity are two pretty different places in the same city. While Hafencity is a modern area with up-to-date houses and new values, St. Pauli has a lot of older, dilapidated houses. It is easy to spot out the differences in the two districts, not only at the architecture, but also at the people who live there. It is obviously an huge difference in how much money the city has spent at Hafencity in proportion to St. Pauli. This also comes to the surface when we look at the waste situation. Modern values says that everything have to be “green”, and a rich district like Hafencity would off course follow these by having a functional waste system. While there is a lot of garbage at the streets in St. Pauli, you would have difficulties finding as much as a plastic bag at the clean streets in Hafencity.

Bergen has a lot to improve, but plans are already made to make the situation better. The city has a plan, which is making an underground waste system. With this system, there will be less CO₂emissions by cars carrying waste. The waste system will bring the waste to the refuse incinerator where it will be burned, and hopefully used for distance heating. Distance heating is also something Bergen has to improve. It is just in a small scale, but the potential is much bigger. Like in Hamburg, Bergen is also carrying trash, but the other way; Bergen is paying Sweden to burn dangerous waste. This is also causing big CO₂emissions from large trucks, which is a problem for the environment. In Bergen, not as many households have sorting systems like in Hamburg. People’s thoughts about sorting are different in the two cities. While in Hamburg most people want to help the environment by sorting metal, glass, paper, bio and others, people in Bergen think too less about it, and throw it all in the same garbage. However, paper sorting is usual in Bergen, and a lot of households also sort bio waste. Both Hamburg and Bergen are recycling bottles, in a system where you get money back if you bring it back to the shop. This is a simple trick that is well known all over the world: Treatment.

The city of Hamburg has come far in the process of being an environmental friendly city, but there is a much larger potential, especially in the districts that is not as rich as Hafencity. Hamburg could use more distance heating, and improve the situation in for instance St. Pauli by setting up new trash cans. Bergen has a lot to learn from Hamburg, especially when it comes to recycling in general and recycling stations. The people in both cities have to be more conscious about the whole environmental situation. It is only this way we could make a change.

Posted by Andrea

The Bybane

2013-03-20T15:34:00.000+01:00

A while back a representant from the "Bybaneutbyggingskontor".
He talked about the Bybane which is the biggest project in city development in Bergen right now.

Bybanen is a really interesting project, but it is not very relative to "waste and garbage".
He told us that the most of the garbage that is coming from the project is trough scrap metal and rests from the materials they are using for building the Trase.

-Arild.

2013-03-14T10:47:00.000+01:00

Hello!
I'ts been quite some time since we updated the blog, but of course that doesn't mean we haven't worked with our Green Living project.

Since last time we have started writing our project rapport in Norwegian. Later we are going to translate it into English.

We have also translated lots of relevant words from Norwegian into German and English, and made our own little glossary.

Here you can see some of the words we have translated. Norwegian to the left, English in the middle and German to the right.

Arild is still retouching the "Green Bergen, Vol 1" film, and we think the result will be fantastic.

Green Bergen,
blogger Andrea

Visiting the BIR

2013-02-13T15:23:00.001+01:00

(Since last time our group has slightly changed. Arild and Jonas are still here, and the group has got a new member, Andrea. Oscar and Sondre have joined a new group, Urban development.)

Yesterday our class visited BIR, a renovation company in Bergen. We met a sivil ingenieer who guided us throught the factory , and explained to us what they did with the waste.

He showed us the huge ovens, and the pipe systems where hot water from the combustion is transported out from the oven, and away from the factory. This water is used to heat up buildings all around Bergen.

Arild did a lot of filming, so this will be a part of the "Green Bergen, Vol 1", who will be a part of our final product.

Green Bergen,
represented by blogger Andrea

PRESENTATION!

2012-11-06T13:49:00.000+01:00

We are now working on a presentation which we have divided into four sections:

- Global problems and goals for waste reduction, and recycling.
- National problems and goals for recycling and emission.
- Regional problems and goals for recycling and waste reduction.
- Local problems regarding waste and recycling. What is the new underground waste system?

Green Bergen - Teaser

2012-10-24T22:25:00.001+02:00

We are, as you may know, working on a movie about the garbage and such in Bergen. Here is our teaser for that movie! Enjoy!

Underground garbage network

2012-10-19T12:51:00.004+02:00

Bergen is an urban city. As a result, this can lead to several issues when it comes to waste and trash. For example, we need transportation for the garbage, which isn’t exactly as easy as you would think. Today we use garbage trucks to transport the waste. As a result, people have to spend both time and money on this. What’s more, these trucks are polluting the environment. However, Bergen is now trying to change this. They are developing a so called garbage network. This system is based on an underground network, using air tubes. In addition, these tubes are transporting the garbage using the clean energy of high pressure air. Consequently, this project is going to lead to both a more efficient and environmental friendly way of solving this issue. However, we do not yet know when the network is going to be done. Hopefully soon.

Interview!

2012-10-17T15:30:00.004+02:00

We’ve recently been working on a short video, where we have interviewed several random people in Bergen. Our goal is to find out what the people of Bergen think about recycling. This movie is going to show us what the population does, when it comes garbage. Are the people of Bergen willing do such cutbacks for the environment. Sondre and Jones are the reports, while Arild and Oscar are cameramen, and editors. We are going to ask them these following questions:

· What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word waste?

· Do you recycle your garbage?

· Do you believe in global warming, or is it a myth?

· Scenario: You have a chocolate paper, there are no trashcans nearby. What do you do?

· Would you consider yourself as an environmental person?

This video will be edited and be revealed in our final product...

Is Recycling in Bergen Good for the Environment?

2012-10-17T15:28:00.001+02:00

We send a lot of recyclable material to Sweden to get recycled. By doing this, we emit a lot CO₂, of which makes us wonder;

- Why do we send all this to Sweden?
- Is recycling environmentally or just recourse friendly?

Environmental cutbacks

2012-09-27T13:15:00.002+02:00

Since the industrial revolution, the amount of consumption and pollution has increased by far. These consumptions can lead to unnatural climate changes, such as global warming. Luckily, many people are doing things to stop this. Things like recycling, power saving and other cutbacks for the environment. Many of the people of Bergen are also doing these measurements to save our environment. Science has shown us that these cutbacks are vital at this point of time, and reductions of these consumptions are one of the top priorities today.

DID YOU KNOW?

2012-09-25T09:15:00.001+02:00

Did you know that over 5% of the carbon dioxide emission is caused by waste, garbage and other leftovers? Although wealthy countries such as Norway, Britain and the USA are causing most of these emissions, sadly, poor, developing countries get most of the fatal consequences.

SOURCES

2012-09-22T18:46:00.005+02:00

http://www.regjerningen.no/nb/sub/framtidensbyer/forbruk-og-avfall.html?id=548118

http://www.bir.no

http://www.mdgbergen.moonfruit.com/#/resirkulering/4554116893

http://www.miljostatus.no

Waste: Problems to solve

2012-09-21T18:08:00.000+02:00

These are some of the problems we are going to try to solve, or at least improve;

-How do people in Bergen sort waste?
-How can we make it easier to recycle in Bergen?
-How do the waste-systems in Bergen work?

2012-09-18T21:35:00.000+02:00

During this project, we attend to learn more about how waste has an influence on the people. We want to make the people of Bergen more concerned and aware of what both garbage and pollution does, and what we can do to make a change.

2012-09-17T11:16:00.003+02:00

Green Living: Waste

Friday we were given the subject "Waste". We are quite satisfied with our topic because we are very committed to waste reduction, environmental protection, recycling and reuse.