Vauban in Germany is one of the largest car-free neighbourhoods in Europe, home to more than 5,000 people. If you own a car here, you must buy a space in a multi-storey car park on the edge of the district. Vehicles are allowed down the residential streets at walking pace to pick up and deliver, but not to park. Streets have been taken over by kids as young as four or five, playing, skating and unicycling without direct supervision.
Most of the European car-free areas prevent vehicles from entering the streets where people live. Exceptions are made for emergency vehicles and removals vans but not for normal deliveries, which are made on foot, trolley or cycle trailer. Cycling is a vital means of transport.
That seems a contrast from cities in developing nations where everybody is on a car-buying spree. More cars on the road, and most single occupants, mean roads to be widened and that means trees face the axe! Cities are beginning to look like desert landscapes. Goes without saying car-free cities/towns will need certain infrastructure in place.
More of the metal story follows. India is drowning under 4,20,000 tons of e-waste a year which is growing at 10-15 percent a year. Pollution control officials says there are only six regular recycling units in India, with an annual capacity of 27,000 tonnes.
Without recycling facilities that can handle the loads of e-waste that need to be process,97% of the waste gets recycled in hazardous conditions, where workers are exposed to toxins like barium, cadmium, copper and lead.
Health conditions apart, the problem points to a scenario where too many new and unnecessary gadgets keep pouring into the market place, displacing old but perfectly usable gadgets pouring into dumps and recycling facilities!
The fancy with gadgets is all too visible with the middle class joining the upper classes. Lessons in recycling and reducing waste are yet to pick up in the collective consciousness. Perhaps nothing short of a movement can address the problem.
Are you doing something in your community?
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1 comment:
So true!Cameras, TVs, refrigerators, the craze for the new product is amazing. I have seen homes where this is a fad. products are perfectly in working conditions when replaced. Either thrown or left to gather dust in a corner of the house.
I believe people's movements alone can help drive a consciousness into people of the resources we are wasting in the process.
Perhaps gadgets should be taxed more heftily?
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