Being underground in Tokyo

Location: Tokyo, Japan

“If you don’t have a local person or someone who knows their way around to guide you, you’ll most certainly get lost.” This is pretty much the first thing (non-Japanese) people will tell you after their stay in Tokyo. Further, this turns out to be pretty much the first thing that comes to my mind whenever I‘m recalling that one moment in Tokyo when I desperately tried to figure out where I am and how I’m going to get where I’m supposed to be. It goes without saying that not speaking Japanese, doesn’t help to ease the situation either. Next time, I’ll bear the wise words of returning Tokyo visitors in mind before walking off on my own in the Japanese capital. I really can only agree with them.

However, this post is not supposed to be (entirely) about my lack of direction, but primarily about one of the things that fascinated me most about Tokyo: the transportation system, more precisely the metro or subway. I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures: crammed cabins and more people squashing in as supervisors are trying to push the crowd further back from the doors in order for them to close properly. It’s not just pictures, it’s real. On average, more than 6.33 million people use the subway routes of one of Tokyo’s major subway companies every day. Just a reminder, more than 13 million people live in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area (TMA). Now, this would mean that nearly half of Tokyo’s population uses the rail system (of one transport company!) on a daily basis. Naturally, during commuting time, subways are incredibly crowded. Once I actually happened to get on a subway during working hours and I was really surprised about how empty it was. I assume only a handful of passengers that use the underground every day have ever actually had a chance to sit down.

Nevertheless, the public transport system in Tokyo is very accessible. In fact, it is considered to be one of the most highly developed transport systems in the world. Moreover, as the urban transport primarily based on rails (e.g. subway), it is also one of the most environmentally friendly ways to get around.

See you next time!
Yours August

 

Heading through Toronto in a rental car without SAT NAV

Location: Toronto & Montréal, Canada

Since my travel schedule for the past two months was crammed with exciting places to visit (Canada, Japan and China), I just didn’t have a chance to sit down and post something on online my travel diary. Please bear with me. Today though I managed to make some time and of course I don’t want to keep all the things I’ve seen and learned to myself. You know me, I’m happy to share some information. In case you are interested in taking me places, just let me know (email to 
info@aut-chemnitz.de).

At the end of June I made my way to Canada, more precisely to Toronto and Montréal. In Toronto there were at least two things I’ve learned: Firstly, I figured out that either my sense of orientation isn’t as bad after all or the infrastructure and ways to get around in Toronto are easy to grasp. I assume the latter is probably more likely. ;-) This insight was actually down to the fact that the car I had rented didn’t have SAT NAV which required me to follow road signs and pixelated maps from the internet but which gave me the chance to take notice of my environment and to see where I’m actually going. Secondly, and more importantly, I found out that there is not one general rule on waste treatment set out by the federal government in Canada. In fact, the ways rubbish and scrap are handled differ both across and within the different states of Canada and are down to state governments and individual municipalities.

Arguably, this way of dealing with waste management has one crucial advantage. Since states and local authorities do not depend upon national guidelines stringently telling them how to deal with their waste, space is made for the development and realisation of creative and environmentally-friendly ideas for waste management. On this note, the likelihood (and willingness) to try out new things increases, which raises the chances of those in charge to turn to more innovative and progressive solutions and technologies. On the other hand, the lack of a standard legislation on waste disposal and recycling that applies to all states of Canada may cause the development of significant contrasts across and within the states. For instance, whereas one municipality may ambitiously separate collected residential waste according to material type for the purpose of recycling and a closed substance waste management, another municipality may not see a need for removing valuable resources from the mix and, therefore, has its waste piles shipped to landfill sites based in a different country.

Which waste management strategies will turn out to be the most effective, financially viable and environmentally-friendly remains to be seen. Though, at the end of the day, the issue of waste production and disposal is the same for every municipality and state in Canada (and the world for that matter). If there ever is one optimal solution for this issue that further meets all the attributes listed above, perhaps there is a chance to spread the word across the borders of municipalities, states, countries and continents.

See you next month! 

Yours, August

 

The Most Beautiful (and Environmentally-Friendly) 10 Miles in the World

Location: Bern, Switzerland

On Saturday, May 12th 2012, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the desire to run my heart out as I saw more than 25,000 people put on their running shoes and start covering a distance which is also referred to as the 10 most beautiful miles in the world. The course is weaving through the UNESCO World Heritage city of Bern and guides the runners past historic buildings, along beautiful and narrow alleys and over bridges connecting the historic and the modern part of the Swiss capital which are naturally divided by the river Aare. Besides being not the easiest track to run along due to its gradually ascending and sloping hills, the course is as scenic and diversified as it can get which annually attracts thousands of visitors from Switzerland, Europe and the world and invites them to take part in the Grand Prix of Bern.

Though the Grand Prix may represent a personal challenge for many participating runners, it is at the same time an environmental challenge for the organisers of the event who seek to keep the negative impact on the environment in both the event’s administrative and marketing processes and during the main event to a minimum. In fact, as part of a study on different major events in Switzerland which was conducted by the WWF in 2009 and which focused on the organisers’ efforts to be environmentally-friendly, the Grand Prix in Bern was considered to have a great potential to become an ecological champion like its counterpart the Lucerne Marathon. This is mainly down to its ambitious efforts in the areas of waste generation and recycling, catering, traffic, energy demand/consumption and overall management.

Did you know that in 2009 about 25,000 fair-trade bananas were given to the participants of the Grand Prix in Bern? Same this year. At the meeting point at the finishing line of the course there where numerous shopping carts full of bananas waiting for the runners. At the end of the day, all that was left were loads banana peels which piled up in bins, on tables and on the ground and which later made their way to a biogas plant in order to be converted to energy. 

Touching Wood

Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

 Holidays just go by way too quickly… Soon after my short break in Thuringia, Germany, I was asked to join a colleague of mine on his business trip to Slovakia. Instead of exploring the sights of the country’s capital, such as Bratislava Castle or the Primatial Palace, we were more interested in visiting a biomass plant.

In line with EU norms and increasing costs for fossil fuels, such as coal, Slovakia’s attention to energy supply and consumption recently shifted from coal-based energy towards bio fuels such as biomass. Today, the share of biomass in the annual consumption of primary energy sources in Slovakia ranges between 1.0 and 1.5 percent. It is not rocket science to find out what type of biomass is used if one considers that more than 40 percent of the Slovak territory is covered by forests. Logically, the use of wood as an energy carrier in biomass plants seems like a viable option.

 

However, as prices for wood are gradually going up, several municipalities in the country have become fed up with their dependency upon fluctuating resource prices and have decided to focus on the use and production of refuse derived fuels (RDF) from waste. Subsequently, ideas were collected, experts were consulted and a final plan was developed in to achieve this goal. In line with this plan, three new RDF plants are proposed to be built and two existing biomass plants are scheduled to be retrofitted in order to become suitable for the use of RDF generated by a plant which will be supplied by a plant manufacturer from Germany. If this project is realised successfully, it will not only save money but also many trees. Touch wood.

Holiday, at last!

Location: Rennsteig, Germany

So far, my (business) trips have taken me to places all over the world, far away from home. Therefore, when I had a couple of days off a few weeks ago, I decided to spend some time in a place in Germany that’s quite close to home. I joined a small family with a baby boy for their trip to Thuringia, more precisely to the famous hiking and cycling trail Rennsteig. The 195 km trail stretches from the town Hörschel near Eisenach through the Thuringian Forest Nature Park and the Slate Mountains to Blankenstein. There used to be a saying that a true rambler takes a stone from the river Werra at the beginning of the trail, carries it in its pocket to the end of the trail and throws it into the river Saale. 

Even though I didn’t quite manage to walk the Rennsteig all the way from the beginning to the end (not that I tried hard enough) and I ended up taking my stone home with me, I had a really amazing time. Sometimes the good really is so close. You must not think that this might stop me from going out to see places… 

This year, I’m likely to pay a visit to at least the following countries:

England

Switzerland

Canada

France 

If you wish to meet me at any of these places or somewhere else, just let me know. I’m always up for travelling. :-)

Enjoying some rice and chicken feet in Shanghai

Location: Shanghai, China

After three hours of driving to Munich airport, six hours of flying from Munich to Dubai, four hours of waiting for our connecting flight, and another eight hours of flying, my colleague and I finally arrived in Shanghai on March 5^th last week. It was afternoon in China and since I pretty much stayed up all night, I desperately wanted to go to bed. Thankfully, as we took the transrapid train from the airport which felt a bit like flying, as we were going about 430 km/h, we arrived at the hotel very quickly. My first meal in Shanghai I had at a small takeaway with steamed-up windows and it consisted of a bowl of rice, chicken feet, egg yolk soup and vegetables. Trust me, it sounds worse than I thought.

The reason I actually ended up in Shanghai is that I joined a colleague of mine who was presenting the company she works for at the IE expo 2012, a trade show within the environmental and waste management industry. The trade show was very interesting and there were loads of interested people from China, but also Japan, India, Mongolia and from other countries visiting our booth. In addition to exhibitors introducing technologies for the complete treatment or sorting of solid waste, there were a lot of Chinese and German companies that provide equipment and filtering systems for water cleaning. In fact, waste water and contaminated is a huge issue in China, as there are still many production facilities that simply feed their chemicals into rivers and lakes or that store toxic residues in riversides.

However, the trade show is one of the first signs of a gradually increasing environmental awareness in China and a step towards the realisation of scheduled government efforts. The 12^th Five-Year plan predominantly refers to ecological sustainability including energy and resource efficiency, climate change and the reduction of environmental pollution to a minimum. With regard to its environmental orientation, this Five-Year plan supports the targets proposed by China just before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2009, which include the reduction of green house gasses by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 compared to the level in 2005. In order to support China in the implementation of its aim, I will probably join my colleague on a few more trips to trade shows in Shanghai.

Wearing a Winter Coat at 25° Celsius in Abu Dhabi

Location: Abu Dhabi, VAE

Yes, winter has finally arrived in Germany and it’s not doing a very good job making a secret out of it. Last week when I was picked up by a colleague of mine to get to work early in the morning, I watched people desperately trying to scrape the ice off their windscreens and I couldn’t help but feeling a little bit relieved, since I had someone to take me to work in a car that was already warm and de-iced. Then I glanced at the display behind the steering wheel and my gaze froze for a second or two when I realised how freezing cold it really was. The display read -19°C. Brrrrrr - to say the least. When we arrived in work, I found out that one of my colleagues was in the middle of preparing everything for his short business trip to Abu Dhabi. He was set to leave the same day. “Abu Dhabi”, that’s all I thought and I dreamed of warm temperatures, a bright blue sky and an excessive amount of sunshine… Suddenly I was on a mission and in a moment when he wasn’t looking I snug up to one of the bags he would take and hid inside it.

You can’t imagine the surprise on his face when he opened his bag after we had landed in Abu Dhabi. As we left the airport, we experienced a temperature difference of 44°C (Germany – United Arab Emirates) and I suddenly felt that my winter coat was not quite the adequate wear for outside temperatures as high as 25°C. I guess polar bears and heat don't match...

One of our stops during the stay in Abu Dhabi was a transfer station for municipal solid waste and other mixed waste fractions. Considering the high temperatures and the large amount of waste piling up, the smell at the station was nearly unbearable, especially when you have a sensitive sense of smell like I do. At the transfer station, a percentage of the about 10 Million tons of waste which are annually generated in the emirate, is temporarily stored and then transferred to the end point of disposal. These end points of disposal tend to be dump and landfill sites which receive waste streams that consist of both household refuse and industrial as well as clinical and hazardous waste. However, this is gradually changing, as the Centre of Waste Management (CWM) in Abu Dhabi has now started to control and evaluate exiting landfill sites in order to decide about the closure of individual sites. At the same time, more and more companies or establishment that provide waste collection, transportation services as well as waste treatment and reprocessing plants were registered and licensed by the CWM. These measures are part of an overall strategy to divert 90 per cent of waste from landfill to recycling processes by 2018. This is an ambitious target and I’m excited to see whether and how it is going to be achieved.

When we arrived back in Germany, we found that the freezing cold winter temperatures had not magically vanished. Instead, we walked to the car in the cold and had to remove the ice from the windows which made me appreciate my warm winter coat.

Exploring Turkey on the Back of a Silver Elephant

Location: Izmir, Turkey

For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Turkey is holiday. This is no surprise when one takes into account that in 2010, Turkey attracted more than 28.6 million foreign tourists. Interestingly, looking at this country through some more green tinted glasses, what only few people know (frankly, I used to be one of them before I visited the country a couple of weeks ago) is that Turkey is one of the five major ship recycling nations in the world. In fact, there is a big ship breaking yard in the western town of Aliaga in Izmir where 341 ships experienced the end of their lives in 2011.

Another more economical but just as impressive fact is that the Turkish cement export ranks as the fourth biggest in the world with a production capacity of 66 million tons. Turkey trails only China, India and the U.S. in cement exports on a global scale. It may seem a little incoherent and random but the size of the Turkish cement sector may actually turn out to be a massive potential for the recycling industry, more specifically for producers of recycling and waste management equipment. There is a growing shift towards more independency and autonomy of Turkish cement producers from the supply of natural resources, mainly fossil fuels. This means, many producers are seriously thinking about using (more) RDF (refuse derived fuel) generated from waste that can replace a specific percentage of fossil fuels used in the combustion process. This is certainly a shift that is worth watching, which means I’ll probably be heading to Turkey more often.

Overall, besides the many things I have learned about the Turkish environmental or cement sector, there is one thing that I will remember most about my last trip to Turkey: riding a silver elephant. :-)