Karsten about living in co-housing community

Interview with our vice-president Karsten - living in co-housing community in Østerbro, Copenhagen. The video is in Danish.

In short - it is not only fun to live with other people, but also very efficient - one shares tasks, spends quality time together and has much smaller carbon footprint. One tv, one fridge, one washing machine etc.

By Piret

The missing CO2

Two weeks ago a debate show was on Danish national radio about the embedded CO2 content in products. Apparently just making a car results in 9-16 tonnes of CO2 in global emissions primarily due to the energy use in extraction, purification and melting of metals.

The show is in Danish, but very worthwhile!

http://www.dr.dk/P1/P1Formiddag/Udsendelser/2010/11/15082957.htm

An interesting presentation on games

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

Inspirational Malmö

Just few weeks ago I was on a study tour to Malmö, to see the sustainable city districts - Augustenborg and Västra Hamnen, and places with solar cells. I would like to share some pics and facts.

Largest photovolatic plant in Sweden, in Sege Park. 1250 m2 of solar panels and with a peak power of 166 kW.

Solar parabolic disc with Stirling Engine, approx. 700 degrees hot! :) I guess our tech guys can explain how this thing works. Looks cool, at least!

It was off that day..

I found an explanation here: http://www.brighthub.com/environment/renewable-energy/articles/65860.aspx

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Other ways to use solar cells - give a shade and part of the 'decoration' on the balcony.

Cheers,

Piret

Energy and wine bottles

I have heard something very interesting about recycling of wine bottles in Denmark. Wine bottles do not have the pant on them (at least majority of the bottles) and therefore one should deliver them to these big round containers on the street. Fair enough - one should think - it is not so important to get money for the bottle, but to deliver them, so they would be reused again. And if it happens that some of them break, it would be melted and made into new bottles.

Actually only 21% of the wine bottles will be washed and put back into the cycle. Majority is melted and then made into new bottles. How come? It is because of the way the bottles are collected and transported to the sorting and washing, and because of the glue used to put the labels. The process is following:

• You put the bottle in the container - it makes a pretty strong 'clank', but probably it would not brake.
• The truck that collects the bottles, lifts the container and opens it from underneath (wonderful design :/ ), to let the bottles flow with incredibly loud clatter into the dumper.
• The truck drives to the washing/collecting center where it dumps it on the floor (there might be one extra stop, not sure). Breaking more bottles...
• In the washing, the bottles that have the labels with a strong glue, will be sent to be melted.
• And of course, some of the bottles have a shape, that is not suitable for the local needs.

I cannot give you the exact numbers, but it is very clear that instead of washing, but melting and making new bottles, the process requires much more energy. One could save a lot here..

What about the fact that wine comes from other countries than Denmark? Well, apparently, the supermarkets bottle big part of their wine, that comes in casks, in Denmark.

So, next time you have a glass of wine, you can think about how to 'break the vicious circle' and get the wine bottle safely back to the supermarkets wine department, to be used again and again and again. :)

Piret

(information collected from a discussion in our citizens Waste Group at 2100.nu)

Welcome to Our New ECDK Blog!

Dear Crossroaders,
feel welcome to check out this blog & contribute to its content :-)
Looking forward to read you!
Best, Caroline