Random directions

Hello there! I've been rather unproductive as far as my blog is concerned this past month. Unfortunately, I've had quite wild ride at work since my birthday - three weeks of concentrated effort directed at firstly a 40 page paper I'm writing with a few coauthors, and then preparing for a 50 minute seminar at the institute last week. Needless to say, I've let a few things slip, and blogging is one of the first things to go overboard. I'm still trying to catch up on some of my correspondence, so I beg patience if you haven't heard back from me yet. I nevertheless couldn't resist jotting down a few random thoughts here:

Why Germans Recycle

The Germans tend to have a reputation for being green. Of all the major industrial nations, Germany is arguably the most environmentally aware, and green politics is mainstream here. One thing that they are very keen on is recycling, which operates here in three distinct ways. The first two will be familiar to people in Australia: we put the old packaging out for collection, and our glassware in designated bins that are found throughout the suburbs.

All this is very virtuous, but there is also a very good financial reason to recycle, which brings us to the third approach to recycling. When the supermarket sells a bottled product, such as water or beer, included in the price is a "Pfand" (refund): if you return the bottle to the store after you've drunk the contents of the bottle, you get the refund back. At my supermarket, Kaufland (literally "Shopping Land"), this is a very sophisticated process: there are automated bottle receptacles that scan the bar code on the bottle and determine what the associated Pfand is. After you've placed all the bottles in the receptacle, a receipt is printed. Presenting this receipt at the check-out in Kaufland, the total Pfand deducted from your grocery bill.

But this would all count for nothing if the Pfand was small (think "5c at return depots in S.A."). Here in Germany, however, the Pfand can be substantial: sometimes up to EUR 0.25 (roughly AUD 0.40) a bottle! To illustrate this, I show below my favourite drink in Germany: sparkling water. The Germans are absolutely crazy about carbonated water, and although I thought it rather odd when I first moved here, I've since been converted. That, however, is a post for another day. Anyway, returning to the bottles: the cost of the 3 litres of sparkling water shown below is EUR 0.69. With a Pfand at EUR 0.25 a bottle, however, the actual price you'll pay in Kaufland is EUR 2.19! The Pfand of EUR 1.50 isn't so small that you'll happily ignore returning the bottles. And these are just flimsy PET things.



In The Minority

According to this report on the ABC news website, sometime this year humanity will pass a major landmark in the history of technological civilization: more than half of the global population will own a mobile phone. I may once have told some of you that my ambition is to be the last person on the planet to own a mobile. This goal still stands, and it looks like I have a good chance of achieving it!

Something Silly

You'll be very happy to know that somebody has made a site for this. Some of the Kitlers are rather disturbing.