Berlin: Reduction Of Trash, Reduction Of Air Pollution, And Use Of Renewable Energy

This essay is about Berlin trying to reduce trash, reduce air pollution, and trying to use more renewable energy. It is important to make a change, even if it’s a small change, Berlin had already recycled about 3 million tons of plastic and Berlin is considered one of the greenest cities. Berlin has created more bicycle lanes in order to reduce air pollution, making public transport free so that it would reduce private cars, making trash bins colour-coded and placing it in front of your house or in the streets so that it is easier to recycle since the trash is already separated, Berlin has also created a machine where you get money for every plastic bottle recycled and washed and Berlin has made a 17 story building where they work on making this world better.

Berlin is trying to make their city a green city, Berlin has over 2,500 stretches of green area by not cutting down trees which are about over 431,000 street trees the trees in Berlin has increased over 20,000 for the past 30 years. Berlin has a lot of parks and trees everywhere and they estimated about over 2500 parks are in Berlin. This settlement avoids air pollution by using a bicycle or even walking. Cycling is one of the most popular transportation in Berlin, the average number of people that cycle in Berlin every day are about 500,000. They are trying to make bicycle lanes everywhere since it is safer and it doesn’t affect their environment. The government is trying to get the citizens to stop using private vehicles and use public transport in order to reduce the number of private cars, and Berlin is considering getting public transport to free of charge which can be good for both the citizens and the environment.

They encourage people to recycle by giving them €0.25 for every plastic bottle recycled, it is usually located in malls they have a machine where you can put recycled materials and it would give u money, it is also located in restaurants, streets, supermarkets and even some shops. In Germany, they had recycled about 3 million tons of plastic packaging waste which is about 48.8% of trash recycled and 38% is burned. Germany produces 30 million tons of garbage annually. One of the communities Berlin have is The Green Dot system, it has been one of the most successful recycling initiatives, they made people pay a fee for the garbage they threw, this clever system has led to less paper, thinner glass and less metal being used, which leads to creating less garbage to be recycled. They had recycled around 1 million less garbage every year. In the streets they usually have a garbage can sorted out by color for different items, green, blue, yellow, brown and grey. Sometimes the whole bin is the color, sometimes just the lid, before you throw the recyclable items you’re supposed to wash it first and make sure it is clean and throw it to the colored bin according to your item. These garbage cans are even used at homes, at your doorstep or even at malls, this type of garbage can is one of the commonly used garbage cans.

Berlin is effectively fighting air pollution since they said its their priority they have a 17 story building, it’s an office made to save energy. They use daylight instead of using electricity, and they have windows that make sure it is solar protection. The office also uses recycled materials like paper, and instead of using an air conditioner, they use the air outside. This building is very helpful to the environment, their staff are also contributing personally by using bikes or walking to go to places and using a machine called photovoltaic which is collecting solar power in the day to be used for electricity if its dark at night.

The sustainable practices used in Berlin has been effective since it had led to more trees, and more recycled plastic, by making public transportation free had lead to less private cars which means there is less pollution in the air. The other ways Berlin could do to reduce the human footprint on the environment is by banning burning trash since burning trash can cause air pollution and by banning plastic and using reusable containers, spoons, forks, bottles. According to my research, Berlin has been working hard on making this world better and other settlements should too.