When they first came to live in Germany, people first had to learn the rules of garbage sorting here. I remember when I arrived in Germany in early 2009, I lived in a university student apartment. There are several trash cans in the public kitchen. Garbage sorting was new to me at the time, so I studied the German garbage sorting guidebook very carefully.
But sometimes I still take the trash and stand in front of the trash can for a long time and think: "Which bucket should I throw the trash in?" For example, some paper is recyclable, but it is like photos, parchment bags, and metal sheets. Contaminated plain paper does not belong to this category, and it has to be singled out. Later I learned that recycled paper in Germany is very popular and can be recycled. For example, exercise books, books, toilet paper, etc., are mostly printed on recycled paper.
When throwing glass, also pay attention to distinguish white, green, and brown glass. German students can always classify quickly and accurately. However, occasionally they will encounter uncertainties. At this time, everyone gathered around to debate and even called local environmental protection organizations to inquire.
Every week, everyone goes to the supermarket together to return the deposit for the empty bottles. When buying alcoholic beverages, some bottles are recyclable, and the supermarket will add the deposit to the total price. The deposit for some bottles can be up to 0.25 Euro. After you finish drinking the beverage inside, you can send it to the supermarket's professional recycling machine to refund the deposit.
When I first arrived in the Berlin office, I would go out to pack lunch with my colleagues at noon. Everyone except me is holding their own bowls. I didn't notice too much at first, but when I arrived at the restaurant, I found that people in line to pack were all holding a box or bowl, and there were even heavy-looking ceramic bowls. All kinds of self-contained bowls are lined up on the serving table, only mine is the one-time packing box in the restaurant, I suddenly feel very ashamed. Later, I found out that everyone brings their own shopping bags made of cloth or recycled materials when they go out. They don’t like to use disposable cups when they buy take-out coffee. There is always a cup in the bag. The straws provided by the restaurant have also become glass or metal.
Environmental protection is one of the topics that German friends like to talk about, or that no matter what topics they talk about, they always turn to whether they are environmentally friendly. For example, when talking about vacation trips, they would say: "I would choose to take the German railway environmental train to Italy, because environmentally friendly trains produce less carbon dioxide during this trip than airplanes."
There are some historical reasons why Germans attach so much importance to the environment. After World War II, Germany vigorously developed its economy, but ignored environmental protection. Like the Ruhr Industrial Zone on the upper Rhine River, there were once chimneys everywhere, and factories directly discharged wastewater into the Rhine River.
The environment has been damaged to a large extent, and a series of disasters caused by environmental pollution have occurred. The German government and people realized that this could not continue, so environmental protection has become the most urgent and important issue in Germany. Since the 1970s, the then West German government successively issued laws and regulations on environmental protection. The "Waste Disposal Act" is Germany's first environmental protection law. By the early 1990s, the German Parliament also included environmental protection related content into the Basic Law. At present, Germany is constantly improving laws and regulations in the environmental field. It can be said that Germany has the most detailed and complete environmental protection law in the world.
In Germany, there are many non-governmental organizations with the theme of environmental protection. They promote and practice the concepts and also undertake a certain amount of public education. Germans will receive environmental education at a very young age and form good habits. For example, kindergarten children will have courses on nature and environmental protection. The most distinctive feature is the forest kindergarten in Germany, which allows children to get close to and love nature, and to form an emotional connection with nature. Ordinary people have been practicing environmental protection in their lives.
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