Tarang's Blocker Blog, Freiburg 2023

 The longer I live in Freiburg, the more I learn about Germany's success in environmental policies and initiatives. I would not be doing justice to Germany's progress in sustainability without mentioning the "Pfand" (deposit) scheme. I learned about it for the first time when I was walking on the streets of Freiburg with an empty bottle of juice in my hand, and a homeless man approached me. I expected him to ask for money but instead, he just pointed to the bottle in my hand. Slightly confused, I handed it to him. Later, I learned that that empty bottle was actually worth 25 cents. As I learned in my Environmental Policy class last week, the Pfand scheme is an example of a deposit-refund scheme. Under this system, consumers pay an added deposit on drinks packaged in plastic or glass bottles at the time of purchase. Upon returning these bottles through special machines which can be found at most grocery stores, the deposit is refunded to the consumers. The bottles are ...

Freiburg has a strong reputation across the world as the "Green City of Germany". Therefore, it is almost fitting that I am taking a course called "Freiburg Green City". As a part of this course, we have many excursions across Freiburg to learn about sustainable practices being employed in the city. A few weeks ago, we went on an excursion to a Community Supported Farm just outside Freiburg. Community Supported Agriculture is a unique and sustainable way of growing food. Instead of growing the same crop on large fields (monoculture), this farm had great crop diversity even in such a small area. However, what was incredibly unique about it was the fact that it was supported by the same community that used its produce. Under this system, each member of the farm has to make a monetary donation and work five days on the farm every year. In return, the members equally shared the food grown on the farm for free. Since every member lives near the farm, the food does not ha...