We may instinctively think that we all know what a botanical garden is – a beautiful garden where plants are labelled. However, a botanical garden is much more than that. According to Botanic Gardens Conservation International, botanical gardens are institutions holding documented collections of living plants for the purpose of scientific research, conservation, display and education. A botanical garden also has a greater emphasis on conserving rare and threatened plants. Moreover, it provides opportunities for society to immerse in nature, explore their interests, and experience leisure.
Today, about 10,000 plant species from different regions of the world are cultivated there within an area of approximately three hectares.
The collection is predominantly arranged geographicallyand is displayed in landscaped grounds. Three public greenhouses show tropical and sub-tropical plants of American and Old World deserts and rainforests species from America, Africa and Asia.
Picture: Patrícia Gallo (2020)
The Botanical Garden provides pleasure and inspiration to plant lovers all year round =) And a special thank you to Dr. Barbara Ditsch for the pleasant tour!
Looking in from the outside, it can be simple for one to so easily misinterpret or even blatantly disregard the history of another. This is because “history” is often viewed as an entirely independent factor of past – a past which is often unwanted for repetition in the future. Though history is taught as a lesson, it is extremely crucial to also realize that history plays a fundamental role when applied in trying to understand a person, country or pattern.
Over the past couple decades, Germany has become one of the role model developed countries of the world due to its thriving economy and relatively high standard of living for its residents. Present day Germany, in most parts, has developed rather quickly, boasting efficiency as well as maintaining priorities in sustainable transport, renewable energy and waste management. The easy access to resources via the internet is irrefutably impressive and effective in maintaining a booming economy. Need to catch a train but don’t have time to stop at the ticket station? Click! Done! Do you want food delivered to your door-step? Click! Done! Need to make an appointment with the doctor? Click! Done! For someone who doesn’t readily have these amenities available, this is seemingly remarkable.
Slow down for a minute though… The fact is, not all roads to such simplicities were so effortless. Germany had to forge its own path and its people made some hard choices, some which proved beneficial and others destructive in nature. On one excursion to the Dresden Panometer, the class of EM43, if they hadn’t already, would soon realize at the bare minimum what it took to become present day Germany. So let’s turn the clock back about 75 years ago to Dresden, Germany, 1945.
Dresden, February 15, 1945
Bright orange flames produce thick black smoke, giving off embers and ashes rising high into what is now a seemingly pitch black sky. The air, hardly breathable, is regrettably the only thing left to be taken away from the regular man and as far as the eyes can see, the once bustling city centre of Dresden, lay in rubbles after three long hellish days of bomb raids from the Allied Forces. Thousands of civilian lives were lost during the three-day airstrike, leaving thousands of others mourning the loss of their loved ones and quite some years of “cleaning” and rebuilding to restore the City of Dresden.
Dresden, was not a city for military defense at the time, but became targeted for bombing to allegedly disrupt communication among the Nazi Party, which was being ran by Adolf Hitler since 1933. Under Hitler’s Chancellorship, approximately 6 million Jews were killed and millions of other people, whom he deemed politically, religiously or racially “unfit” to live among the German population. These persons were often segregated and taken to extermination camps where they would face certain death at the hands of Hitler’s soldiers. This was a tremendously dark time for Germany, one in which being different was a crime and the mere thought of this invoked fear in the heart of millions of people who took refuge there. Hitler’s rule was ended at a great cost of the lives of German civilians in order to save the lives many more.
Moving forward
So, not everything can be taken for face value. Thereafter, Germany sought out progressiveness through economic growth, which not immediately but eventually welcomed diversity, literacy and now the concept of sustainability and environmental cohesiveness. The last factor, more than anything else, is probably what will make us or break us as a people! For years, mankind has struggled to accept diversity and individuality-history lesson #1. However, lesson #2 is ours for the taking, in deciding how our personal choices in the use of our natural resources will affect each other and our children! Each person, each ethnicity, each country has either chosen or needs to choose soon how to live so as to not lead to the demise of mankind through our destructive nature in the unwise and over exploitive use of our natural resources. Yadegar Asisi’s Panometer of Dresden 1945 is not just history. Under different circumstances it is provides a definite insight of mankind’s future should we not understand our weighty dependence on maintaining healthy environmental ecosystems!
One of the old gas storages in Dresden saved as a historical monument
Have you thought about the value of the waste you produce or the value of the things you so often throw away or discountenance? You probably have not! However, you see, in Germany, waste management is a multibillion-euro economy with an annual turnover of €70 billion. To put that in perspective, the annual turnover of Germany’s waste management sector is more than twice the €32 Billion 2020 federal budget of Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria. More so, according to Germany’sFederal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), in 2018, there were over 11,000 waste management companies, which operated over 15,500 waste management (collection, recovery and recycling) facilities, employing over 270,000 people.
What is even more interesting is the fact that waste management in Germany is self-funded. At the moment, each German citizen pays about 18 cents pay day or (€ 50 annually) to have his/her wastes evacuated and appropriately managed. Perhaps more intriguing is the fact that waste management services are fully contracted to private companies. Private waste operators are paid by relevant regulating or municipal authorities from the fees paid by the users. From waste collection, transportation, sorting, recycling, treatment, dedicated men undertake disposal, and women employed and paid by contracted companies. Dresden, a city of about 500,000 inhabitants and the capital of Saxony Free State has a total of 3,580 bins and streets measuring approximately 1,773 km, which are cleaned regularly
To get a glimpse of the waste management system in the city, 21 fellows from ongoing 43rd UNEP/UNESCO/BMU International Postgraduate Course on Environmental Management at CIPSEM, Technical University (TU), Dresden, Germany set out on an excursion to three waste management-recycling facilities within Dresden City. The three sites were a residual waste treatment plant, a mineral recycling plan and an electronic recycling center. For each of the three sites, there were tons of things to learn, compare and admire. Admire, right, perhaps the enthusiasm, devotion and professionalism with which the workers approached their work, not just to put food on the table, but with clear understanding that the work they do is dignified and strategic to the health and success of their city.
Residual Treatment Plant
This facility located at Hammerweg, Dresden, is residual waste treatment plant that employs a method called “biological, mechanical treatment”. The process is so called because it employs biological methods to dry the wastes and then, sort them mechanically to remove inert- and metal fraction. The treatment facility is operated by Stadtreinigung Dresden GmbH, a private company.
The facility was commissioned in 2001 in response to changes proposed in the German Federal law which outlawed disposal of untreated residual wastes in landfills, especially if it has a high calorific value or a high methane production potential – methane is dangerous GHG. Before that law, Dresden, and indeed Germany, dumped residual wastes in open landfills. The open landfill in Dresden was closed in 2002 just like many other landfills across Germany had to shut down. To show how injurious to the environment landfilling is, eighteen years after closure, the landfill in Dresden still produces methane. However, the methane is efficiently collected through a network of installed systems and used for energy generation. Some landfills remain actively operational today in Germany but they are for the disposal of special wastes such as mineral wastes.
Stadtreinigung Dresden GmbH collects residual wastes from the entire City from residual bins strategically placed in homes and public places. People also bring their gardening waste to waste-depots located at the entrance of the plant. However, these (gardening) wastes go to another treatment plant to produce compost. The process of treatment is heralded by delivery of residual wastes transported to the facility by specially designed trucks. (In Germany, trucks used in waste delivery carry the special “A” sign). The trucks deliver the waste to the bunker inside the treatment plant after which a thorough cleaning of the vehicle, especially the wheels and compartments, follows. This is to reduce re-contamination.
The wastes are then transported by automated crane systems to the pre-shredding phase where wastes are cut into small pieces to increase surface area for biological action. The next step sees the pre-shredded wastes placed into drying boxes where they are left for some days for rotting to take place. Pumping of air to the wastes follows to take up any organic matter remaining. The wastes are then transported through sieves to separate them into various types and sizes. Furthermore magnetic and eddy current separation for metals and windsifters to get rid of the inert fraction. Mindful of the health of the community, the air is burned to eliminate the remaining organic matter and foul smell before it is released to the environment. Unbelievably, within the neighborhood, you would hardly notice that a waste treatment plant of this magnitude exists.
The facility produces RDF (refuse-derived-fuels) for incineration. The facility also makes extra money by sorting out metals from the residual wastes it receives from the public. These metallic wastes are sold to the metal recyclers in Germany. Other waste fractions from the mix are sold to different processors such as cement factories, lignite factories, and glass manufacturers… So, you see where Euros are coming from?
Apart from this plant, another plant operates in another part of the city that produces biogas from biowastes. The residues from that anaerobic digestion process (which results in biogas production) are of qualities too low to sell to private gardeners. Thus, instead, these residues from the process are sold to landscapers.
Mineral recycling plant
Nordmineral Recycling facility had its own intrigue! Oh, some still think gold, copper etc. are the only minerals! Well, not at all! Sand, ballast, asphalt, stones to mention but a few, are also minerals. Perhaps because Africa is blessed with many precious minerals, we hardly conceptualize that construction wastes could also be a source of minerals!
To be honest, Nordimineral Recycling facility did look like an active quarry. Huge heaps of sand, ballast, building blocks, bricks and others dotted the site. Minimal dust was produced inside of the plant from the giant blocks fed into the huge crusher by one of the caterpillars on site. The facility produces brick dusts of different sizes which are used in construction, landfilling and poultry houses. Large construction blocks are also made from the waste sands and ballast together with cement. These are used as security barriers and to shield riverbeds against floods. The sight of trucks that kept coming and leaving the facility emphasized the importance of the facility. In fact, Germany produces a significant amount of construction wastes. For instance, in 2015, it produced 209 million tons of wastes against 51 million tons of household wastes. This makes a good case therefore to have such a facility that recycles construction and demolition wastes.
Nordimineral Recycling facility was constructed in 1995 at a total cost of $7.5 million. It is operated by Nordimineral Recycling GmbH & Co. KG. The design capacity of the facility is one million tons of mineral wastes annually but currently operates at one-third of its installed capacity. To keep up with the set standards; the plant conducts a monthly testing of the chemical composition for the products coming out of the facility. The dust particles sizes are also closely monitored. The markets for its products are construction companies and Government agencies.
From the look of things, this is a very profitable and strategic sector. So, it begs the question, how does Africa manage her construction waste. Could it be a question of a billion euro loss?
Mineral Waste sorting and recycling Plant. Nordmineral Recycling GmbH
Electrical and electronics recovery centre
Lebenshilfe Recycling Facility recycles electrical and electronics waste (e-wastes). In the past few years, e-wastes have grown into a serious environmental concern. What stands out of the facility is the fact that it employs disabled and mentally challenged workers. Thus, this social enterprise innovatively combines job creation/gainful employment, sustainable waste management and social integration. What a business model!
The workers are first trained on dismantling processes and personal protection before undertaking the task. You could not help but notice the very clean and well-organized surrounding of this facility. Its workers were fully kitted and the facility is fitted with special equipment that suck off mercury and other toxic gases produced during the dismantling process. Examples of e-waste processed by the facility include desktop computers, television sets (CRT, LCD, LED etc.), mobile phones, radios, CDs, fans, wires etc.
Dresden produces approximately 2,500 tonnes of electronics wastes out of which 2400 tonnes find their way to the facility. Collection of e-waste is at no cost to the members of the public – members of the public are free to bring their e-waste to the facility. There are also dedicated collection outlets at strategic locations across the city. Wastes collected from different locations within the city are then transported to the facility.
Electrical and electronic scrap dismantling and sorting
In conclusion, here are some of the other lessons during the trips:
Citizenry awareness and attitude to wastes is crucial in developing efficient waste management
That waste management sector is a long value chain that creates thousands of opportunities in terms of job, and income both for residents and Government
Waste separation is core to achieving efficient municipal waste management
Developing countries have huge (and largely untapped) potential to create new value-adding, employment and income opportunities in the waste management sector
Unregulated landfilling is a very expensive waste disposal method which leads to loss of economically valuable materials, loss of aesthetic value of land and release of GHGs
Construction wastes can be recycled and reused
The experience at these facilities begs the question, how does Africa/Asia or even the Caribbean manage their waste? Should waste be continuously wasted?
by Mr. Idowu Kunlere (Nigeria) and Mr. Peter Wakahora (Kenya)
UNEP/UNESCO/BMUV course program 