Waste Management (2)

As we discussed in the latest blog, the authorities and its legislations play a key role in urban waste management. Nevertheless, citizen’s awareness, as well as media is also important.

It remains me of the experience in Tokyo last year. In public spaces, rubbish bins and cleaners could hardly be discovered, but the city is still clean. Talked with friends in Japan, some reasons of this phenomenon could be achieved.

Few rubbish bins could be found in street in Japan

1.     Japanese citizens are used to collecting waste in rubbish bags, and bringing them back home for further management.

2.     A well-developed mechanism of waste classification and collaboration is built in Japan. Wastes are strictly classified into four categories: combustible wastes, incombustible wastes, oversized wastes and bottles and cans. Under those classification. Strict rules of waste collection are made for each classification. The combustible waste, including paper, rubber and plastic containers is collected twice a week. Incombustible waste, such as long plastic, metal and glass is collected once a month. Oversized waste, like furniture, and bottles and can are also collected regularly by council.

Rubbish will be collected by council each week

3.     To those who refuse to follow regulations, the council will give punishment, or even pay a visit and persuade.

4.     Sometimes media intervention could play a key role. Immediate exposure of negative behaviors could raise people’s awareness of waste management and form a good habit.

Again, waste management is quite complicated in any context. It demands collaborations among all stakeholders. Only when the state scientifically legislates, local councils efficiently conduct and citizens clearly build themselves with relevant knowledge and awareness, proper waste management could be realized.


Reference: 
http://jpninfo.com/9826
http://www.docin.com/p-379303605.html

Waste management（1）

In the apartment I live, a clear instruction of waste collection is signed. Normal household refuse could be thrown away in the rubbish room on each floor, while others, such as hazardous waste, e-waste and inert waste have to be taken to specific place on ground floor. Nevertheless, last weekend, when my roommate and I try to follow the instruction and bring our gas bottle to right, nothing could be discovered on the ground floor, except two huge locked rubbish bins. Plus, no relevant staff could be inquired.

Although in Australia, similar cases could be sometimes found, the overall waste management should be fine. On the contrary, in China, where I lived in for 20 years, waste management advocated by authorities and garbage classifications taught in class is not really brought into practice in a large number of regions. As a result, plenty of cleaners are employed to clean the street, but rubbish could still be seen everywhere. Different rubbish bins are located in public space, but citizens still lack the knowledge to classify each kind of wastes. It seems the government only puts effort into the final treatment of rubbish, but ignores the importance of waste management on many other stages. For instance, taking actions at the initial step.

Since waste management is complex in any context, it requires the coherence of people’s behavior, good infrastructure/service, and smart legislations given by authorities. Germany and Japan could be examples here.

In 1990, a Green Dot / Gruener-Punkt Plan is conducted in Germany. Companies are requested to prepay an amount of money to the Plan, which is responsible for establishing a network for waste collection and recycling. Any company joining in the Plan could get a Green Dot Symbol on its products, which means citizens can buy it without worries.

In Germany, rubbish bins in diverse colors may illustrate different classifications. Black ones are used to collect waste food, which will usually cause penalty, while yellow ones used for waste wrappages are Green Dot Rubbish, from which no fines should be caused. In consequence, most citizens will try to reduce black rubbishes and establish knowledge of waste collections.

Nowadays, over 90% of companies in Germany have joined the Green Dot Plan, and 23 European countries have followed Germany’s step. The success of this Green Dot Plan is significantly achieved from smart legislation and economic strategies. Nevertheless, citizen’s awareness and media also play a key role in waste management. Let’s talk about this topic in the blog tomorrow.

 Reference: http://www.docin.com/p-379303605.html

The Earth Hour Event (2)

Although the Earth Hour Event is aimed to save energy, reduce carbon emission, and finally protect the planet, many negative points of it are pointed out by the public. As a result, shall we still keep the Earth Hour and relevant events?

I believe the answer should be yes.

Firstly, recent researches conducted in Beijing prove some worries to be unnecessary. Although turning off the non-essential lights for an hour could actually save little electricity, the opinion that considerable stress would be caused to electrified wire netting at the moment when citizen turn on/off the lights should be unreliable. Certainly, a quite large electric current is found when lights are turned on, approximately 5 to 7 times as much as usual, but it will turn down to normal condition within 3 seconds. Moreover, the large electric current will cause no more than 0.1J energy, which may hardly be considered as a waste of energy.

The sudden large electric current occurs when turn on/off lights

Subsequently, the meaning of the Earth Hour might not merely concentrate on how much energy it could really save. The purposes of arousing citizen’s awareness of sustainability and encouraging them to protect environment are also valuable. In consequence, the event of Earth Hour should certainly be kept, but it might not limit to turning off lights or saving electricity. In this case, Sydney, again, becomes the role model.

For instance, last year, celebrating Australian food and farming becomes one of the themes on Earth Hour Day. It was aimed to remind people of the need to tackle global warming for the sake of our rural communities and the supply of fresh, healthy food to our doors.

Last but not least, it is hardly to evaluate how much value and effects could be caused in an event, but establishing the habits of saving energy and living a sustainable life will never be wrong. However, I have to say that it is a problem necessary for UNSW staff and students to take into account, since at 4am, all lights in Red Centre are on. It must be better, if lights here are changed into sound-activated ones, or students turn off the lights before they leave classrooms.

4am, UNSW and McDonald in Barker St. 

Reference: 

https://earthhour.org.au/food-and-farming/

http://www.guokr.com/article/17593/

                  

The Earth Hour Event (1)

On 19^th March 2016, the Event named ” Earth Hour” celebrated its 10^th anniversary. The Earth Hour is a global movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It encourages individuals, business and communities to turn off their non-essential lights for an hour, aimed to save electricity and energy for the planet.

                                    

The Earth Hour is usually held annually on the last Saturday of March from 8:30pm to 9:30 pm during participants’ local time, and Sydney, as a pioneer, becomes the first country to respond to this event in 2007. It is said that over two million citizens joined in, and 2.2% to 10.2% electricity was save on that day in the city of Sydney. The success of the initial event attracts lots of followers. It has grown to more than 7000 cities and towns worldwide so far, such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. In October 2007, San Francisco even ran its own program, Light out, inspired by the Earth Hour, with similar purposes.

Candles used in Shanghai Earth Hour Event

However, can electricity and energy be really saved via such kind of events? Yes and no. Appreciation of the Earth Hour has been received by more and more regions, but criticism is raised at the same time.

Every year, the cost and carbon emission caused by significant promoting events before the Earth Hour is far more than those saved in the hour. The event is criticized to lose its real value.

In 2013, the Project Syndicate published its article “Earth Hour Is a Colossal Waste of Time and Energy”. It argues that the event will cause more emission of carbon, rather than saving electricity. Everytime the event finishes, the emission of carbon produced will be approximately equal to those saved in the past hour.

Moreover, when candles is used in the event as a replacement, CO and black smoke caused by insufficient burning could do harm to the environment. The Earth Hour seems to create a feel-good factor, which makes people consider they are doing something beneficial to the earth.

Since so many negative points are pointed out by the public, shall we still keep the Earth Hour and relevant events? Let’s talk about more on this topic in next blog.

Reference: https://earthhour.org.au/documentary-2016/