sustainability

Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their needs. The concept of sustainability consists of
three parts: economy, environment and social issues.

it means

the ability to be maintained at a certain level.

Avoiding depletion of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance.

Nine billion people are expected to live on Earth in 2050 - and live from Earth. This means that
the earth offers soil such as arable land, water, forest, raw materials such as metals, energy, oil,
gas and much more that people need for life and prosperity. And they consume far too much
because they just waste their resources.

An everyday linguistic understanding that says that something will continue, exist, have an effect
or should be after it has been built, started and / or set in motion for a long time. That is why
sustainability in ecology is defined as the grandson-friendly use of natural resources.
Sustainability in general is a principle of action for resource use, in which the preservation of the
essential properties, the stability and the natural regeneration ability of the respective system is
in the foreground.

Natural resources: the basis of all life

Any everyday act like buying a cell phone or a t-shirt, eating a steak or driving a car

help to consume land, water and materials and emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide
(CO2). Thereby form the

natural resources are known to be the foundation of all life on earth - and they are finite.

Our everyday consumption is associated with an enormous consumption of resources. This is

already far above what

can provide the earth permanently. It can be measured, among other things. using the so-called
four footprints. The people of

countries in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan - about 20 percent of the world’s
population

around eighty percent of the world's resources. In addition to the consumption of natural
resources, we also consume them

non-renewable raw materials such as metals, rare earths, oil and irreversibly overuse soil, water
and atmosphere.

Protect resources and use them respectfully!

At first glance, it is impossible to tell: most products contain more natural resources and
production
is far more harmful to the climate than you would think. Also our wasteful use of water, land,
materials

and the atmosphere the reason for the shortage of minerals and metals, water and soil. He is also
the one

Main cause of climate change and biodiversity loss. The current BUND brochure shows - using
the example of cell phones,

Beef, t-shirts and private transport - how much natural resources we consume and what we
consider to be more gentle

Can deal with these precious livelihoods.

Resource protection is more than raw material efficiency

Our material resources are limited. How can we use our remaining resources in a sustainable
way?

The BUND background focuses on the mining and use of raw materials as well as on the use and

Treatment of the products and waste produced. Resource protection is not just about conserving
resources. It applies

Consider consequential damage and define upper limits for consumption and negative
environmental impacts and

to adhere to.

UN Sustainable Development Goals: Germany in 6th place

The United Nations wants to end 17 sustainability goals by 2030

of the month to replace the Millennium Development Goals. A new study has already calculated:

Germany still has a lot of work to do.

09/14/2015 - Overall, the Federal Republic ended up with the study

the Bertelsmann Foundation in sixth place. For the evaluation were

all 34 OECD countries with regard to the 17 sustainability goals

assessed and a total of 34 indicators formed. 6th place

out of 34 doesn't sound bad at first, especially since

Scandinavian countries Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland

and Switzerland is also ahead of Germany. But important goals

especially the consumption of resources, sustainable consumption

and production, did not reach a single industrial country.

Germany cuts particularly in terms of economic development,

unemployment, research and development, internal security

and surprisingly well in the number of poor.

Just the growing number of poor people or those who

are at risk of poverty, according to OECD statistics in this country

stronger than average. The gap between rich and poor is growing, which the Bertelsmann study
apparently does not take into account.

In terms of environmental protection, Germany is only in the top third in the category of
designated nature reserves. Otherwise points

the Federal Republic has severe deficits, e.g. in the generation of waste. Every German produces
an average of 614 kilograms of waste

per year, on the other hand, the average of all industrialized countries is only 483 kilograms. At
the same time, the extinction of species in Germany

much more drastic than in most other OECD countries, which is why Germany ranks 29th out of
34.

Germany has massive environmental problems in agriculture

According to the study, the biggest problem in the environmental field, which may be related to
the large extinction of species, is

German agriculture. Soils, air and water are heavily polluted and endangered by nitrogen and
phosphorus, which experts have

calculated a surplus of 94 kilograms per hectare of agricultural area. Also the high exploitation of
domestic water resources and

the strong fine dust pollution are big problems. When it comes to particulate matter, Germany is
only 27th.

"If you take the UN's new sustainability goals as a yardstick, all countries are now developing
countries," commented

Christian Kroll, director of studies at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, gave the sobering results.
Compared to the Millennium Development Goals,

that should improve the living situation in emerging and developing countries are the UN
sustainability goals and especially for

Industrialized countries thought. At the end of the month, the heads of state and government will
decide on the goals by 2030 at the UN special summit in New York

What is recycling?
Recycling is the process of collecting and reusing resources and resources that are not thrown
away
but flow into the production of new products.

Benefits of recycling

Recycling has both ecological and economic effects:

It reduces the need to develop new raw materials and conserves natural resources.

Recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation.

It saves energy and money

reduces the amount of waste,

relieves the garbage dumps and incinerators,

creates new, better paid jobs in the recycling industry and manufacturing, and

it helps to preserve the environment for future generations

Recycling steps

Recycling involves the three steps outlined below: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Together they make
that

Recycling cycle, which is also shown in the recycling symbol.

Step 1: collect and recycle

Whether through garbage disposal and street cleaning or by handing waste over to collection
points or recycling centers - in Germany

there are many different methods of collecting valuable materials.

After collecting, the valuable materials are sent to recycling plants. There they are sorted,
cleaned and recycled

Secondary raw materials disassembled. The recycled raw materials, traded like normal raw
materials, then return to the value chain.

Step 2: production

Today, more and more products are made from recycled materials. Examples of common
household products that are recycled

Components may include:

Newspapers, paper towels and packaging materials

Cans, bottles and packaging made of aluminum, plastic, glass and steel

Furniture and home accessories made from used or residual wood

Not only is the number of recycled products steadily increasing, but so are the areas in which
recycled materials are finding their way.
For example, road construction now uses recycled glass for the asphalt, and recycled plastic
flows into the manufacture of

Carpets or park benches.

3rd step: Purchase of consumer goods from recycled material

By purchasing recycled products, consumers ensure that the value chain is actually in the cycle

closes. There are a large number of products that are at least partially made of recycled material.

Pay attention when shopping:

That the products can be easily recycled. Recyclable products can be recognized by the recycling
symbol on the

Packaging (see recycling symbol above).

That the products are made from recycled materials to the greatest possible extent. Recycled
products

In Germany, plastics can be recognized by the Blue Angel environmental label "because they are
made from recycled plastics.