Separating

The art of separation

The art of separation

Nowadays, people who separate either separate their waste, or break up with someone. Both things are difficult for us, which is why we like to postpone them. To separate waste or other things is referred to by grammar books as transitive, to separate yourself from something is reflexive. This reflexive dimension is what is most important for sustainable ways of living and for the success of all sustainability strategies—it is about shaping ourselves, not about us acting upon things. As the German philosopher Heidegger would say—it is about Dasein, not about stuff. By Bernd Draser, translated from the German by Stefan Helwig and Simon Varga read more
More Gold in Waste than in Mines

More Gold in Waste than in Mines

Although we are good at separating waste, we could be better at recycling. Dr Christian Hagelüken is Director EU Government Affairs at Umicore AG. The enterprise operates a high-tech facility close to Antwerp where electronic scrap, accumulators and other technical waste are recycled. An interview by Bert Beyers, translated from the German by Nadja Gröner, Lea Schiefen, Christin Brauer read more
Let’s Break Away from Determined Breaking Points

Let’s Break Away from Determined Breaking Points

Many everyday products could have a longer lifecycle if they were designed accordingly. At the Folkwang University of the Arts, designers create new ideas for this purpose: about separating material, separate modules and separable joints. By Anke Bernotat and Judith Schanz,translated from the German by Nadja Gröner, Lea Schiefen, Christin Brauer read more
Analysing Separately – Thinking and Acting Together!

Analysing Separately – Thinking and Acting Together!

We isolate the three dimensions of sustainability too much. In fact, they are directly and interactively connected with each other in space and time. Instead of separating, there needs to be more integrated thinking and acting. A standpoint of Prof Angelika Zahrnt, translated from the German by Kerstin Lisewski, Eunike Bawarska, Katarzyna Piasecka read more
Tausche Handy gegen großes Menü

Tausche Handy gegen großes Menü

In Millionen Schubladen liegen ausrangierte alte Handys. Würden sie verwertet, könnten kostbare Rohstoffe geschont werden. Doch wie kann die digitale Generation zur längeren Nutzung und zur Trennung vom Alt-Handy überredet werden? Ralf Bindel sprach mit der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlerin Dr. Maria Jolanta Welfens über die verschiedenen Ansätze eines Projekts. read more
Meerwasser minus Salz. Trennen fürs Trinkwasser.

Meerwasser minus Salz. Trennen fürs Trinkwasser.

Meerwasserentsalzung ist ein Multimilliardenmarkt. Von den derzeit sieben Milliarden Menschen ist eine halbe Milliarde auf Trinkwasser aus dem Meer angewiesen, Tendenz steigend. Bis zur Mitte des Jahrhunderts wird die Weltbevölkerung auf rund zehn Milliarden Menschen anwachsen. Die meisten dieser zusätzlichen drei Milliarden werden in Küstenregionen leben. Die Trennung des Meerwassers vom Salz ist eine existenzielle Technik des 21. Jahrhunderts. Von Bert Beyers. read more

Unifying Separation

factory Titel Trennen

Germans are world champions when it comes to separating. Actually, we are talking about separating waste. Blue, yellow, grey and green rubbish bins at home, at train stations, in schools and at the workplace: everyone here is familiar with the system of waste separation. Germany’s recycling system is world-famous, a model frequently adopted elsewhere. For the past 18 years, Germany’s Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act (KrWG-AbfG) has been contributing to turning waste into an economic asset. With this act, operational and systematic waste management were introduced in companies and organisations.

This year, the act was revised. Now it is only called the Closed Substance Cycle Act (KrWG), leaving ‘waste’ in its name out. Waste is to be avoided through waste avoidance programmes that have yet to be implemented through regulations. The KrWG is intended to help establish a real recycling economy in an attempt to progress towards the ideal of a cradle-to-cradle, endless subsistence and resource-conserving economy. Legal experts suggest that the KrWG might be unable to perform the task of protecting natural resources and that Germany needs a proper law with precise provisions for the use of resources. After all, the conservation of resources should not be left to a type of waste management that makes a profit on recycled materials and secondary raw materials.

For this we have to dissociate ourselves from outdated perceptions of how the economy should work, what rules we need and how we should use resources. Let’s encourage differentiation and diversity because without them, everything would be the same—boring and less progressive. Proof of our ability to differentiate is provided by the history of mankind and we demonstrate our capacity for separating every day—on a mental as well as on a material level. Hopefully the articles of this magazine will encourage us to refine the model of separation.

Let’s unify for the cause of separation.

Ralf Bindel, the team of factory and the translator-classes of Donald Kiraly



More articles to the topic of Separating with expressive numbers and citations, nicely illustrated and readable on screens and tablets you will find in our PDF magazine Separating.

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Separating

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