How the Chinese and the Swedes remove their garbage

China is too big and populous country. Especially densely populated city is its capital Beijing. And to manage rubbish is always very difficult. Specialists assert that by 2020 big cities like Beijing will not overcome it.

China has its own opinion about this problem. There are more than 170 thousand waste recycling stations. Rubbish gathering is separate and very wide business branch. It also places in a job for thousands of people most and of them are migrants as a rule. Every morning dustmen “saddle” their tricycles to gather bottles, foam plastic or debris and take it to recycling station. It’s amazing, what are people ready to do to make a lot of money. What is harder: drag waste or gather a way it not to fall down?

The stations have both advantages and disadvantages. The main drawback is insanitary conditions and harm to health of local citizens. The global urbanization has such consequences. And what is to do with household appliances? Today China is the biggest producer of computers, TV sets and refrigerators and it is necessary to think up new way to utilize or recycle it.

7 000 km away in Europe there is absolutely another system of waste recycling. So, Swedish families living in private houses pay half-price for the removal. But with one condition: people themselves separate and sort tin, paper, plastic, glass and punch organic waste.

The removal system in the apartment buildings is a little bit different. There are special containers for plastic, glass and tin, other separated rubbish and all the rest go to dustbins. Hazardous waste is taken to the special ecological stations situated at the gas stations, for example. There are blue containers for photo chemicals, inks, oils, dissolvent, fluorescent lamps; green-red containers for accumulators and batteries.

Somewhere special machines gather old newspaper, magazines and waste paper: people must leave it in front of their doors. Also in Sweden aluminum tins are given back for money. And glass is thrown out to green or white containers for transparent or colored glass respectively.

It is obvious how are different the removal systems in Sweden and China.

by Valentin Ivanov

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Energy and ecology: to preserve and to multiply

Today North Europe comes nearer to new standards of house-building. There are a lot of experimental projects which test “green” technologies widely.

The “green” technologies market in Denmark and Sweden increases and accelerates a pace. These countries try to outrun German and Great Britain in the sphere of eco-building.

Today we will get to know with the Danish settlement Stenlose-South – one of the most energy-efficient European settlement.

In 2004 Danish municipality Egedal bought a dale near of Copenhagen. This area was sold retail to the developers for low-rise building. The architecture of houses can be absolutely various, but it was only one experimental condition – all houses must be up to the ecological requirements.

And now there are 750 cottages and townhouses on the area of 76 hectares. Stenlose is ecologically appropriate and economically sound. Firstly it is forbidden to use here faulty technologies and unhealthy materials (such as PVC, phenol). Secondly it is energy efficient place: all houses consume energy here on 35% less than it is stipulated by the Danish building code.

From the outside all cottages seems simple and have just all necessary. There are no fences. But streets public spaces are too wide. Probably in Denmark it is not done to boast of your dwellings. Most of them have only one floor, because it will be too hard to live in two-storeyed house in old age. Windows don’t have curtains. It is considered that in the past neighbors could see what does sailor’s wife do when her husband went to the sea. Such are traditions.

Such houses are interesting first of all by their engineering inside. Strong heat insulation system and energy-efficient windows keep warmth. Recuperators gather heat from air leaving the house. Especial thermocompressors get 3–4 kW of heat from 1 kW of electricity and hot water comes out of it. One more technology is the rainwater gathering system. This water is used for domesticity completely.

For example, some houses have solar batteries. Other cottages are like thermoses: they have very strong heat insulation systems and high-powered recuperators. As result they needn’t individual heating.

There are also social townhouses for people with a small wealth. But Russians will be shocked by prices here: 1700 euros for square meter.

Beginners who risked to buy the energy-efficient house here now only hope not to miscalculate. The building of such cottage is more expensive than the building of the usual one in 7–10%. But costs must be repaid in 15–20 years. And if to take into account the growth of prices for energy resources, Stenlose has great perspectives.

Sure that Stenlose is an experiment. And it also has some disadvantages. Most of them are connected with building mistakes. Take for example a local kindergarten. There was a big glassy atrium right above the warm floors. All warmth just left rooms though the ceiling. Later it was covered by big piece of cloth. Here is other example: a lot of houses have wide windows and don’t have lobbies to defend rooms of wind and cold.

Research of the optimal decisions continues now. Generally an experimentation spirit hovers in Denmark. There are a lot of trial projects with houses-thermoses or eco-settlements where people use only natural material and live just by farming. Some projects test renewable energy.

by Valentin Ivanov

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Perpetuum mobile

Today we continue to review new energy efficient and ecologically appropriate buildings in North Europe. And now welcome to the smartest Swedish house.

Villa Akarp is the first house of the third generation in Sweden. It produces more energy than uses.

The house owner Karin Adalbert is physicist and has a great interest in “green” technologies. Her house is really stuffed by them. Now Villa Akarp has three functions: it is a house, a museum, and  an advertisement of this project’s partners and of the “green” movement in whole.

Akarp’s architecture is traditional in many aspects. And what is the difference between energy active house and a usual one? There are solar batteries (32 sq. m.) and suntraps (18 sq. m.) producing warmth. Suntraps are very simple: there are a lot of pipes full of special liquid which get the sun warmth. Later this energy goes to the house and heats it up.

Also there is a recuperator which gathers warmth from hot water. Warm air from house passes under the floor. Villa has a big hallway which economizes heat when the doors are opened. At the centre there is a decorated 2000 liter cistern of hot water. Also there is a stove to burn wood waste. Besides that Villa has a good heat insulation. There is a 0.5 meters of special material in the roof and in the walls.

So this cottage produces more energy than it uses. Remainders of energy go for sale. Every year it brings in big revenue of about 2,000 euros. The installation of new technologies costs 60,000 euros and probably this money will be repaid through 30 years.

But there is one disadvantage. Producing and consumption of energy must harmonize in time. For example solar batteries are effective in summer but house needs energy in winter. Or there is daily imbalance. Solar energy comes in the morning and the day hours but lighting is necessary at night too. Therefore the next step is to accumulate warmth and electric energy.

 

Such houses are supposed to cooperate with the local power grid. But sometimes the house gives energy and sometimes gets it. For electricity it is not profitable now. Probably next year Swedish legislators will pass a law according to which electricity network will pay for energy coming from buildings.

As for Russia such experimental projects is a dream of future.  Only experiments and open research can show advantages and disadvantages of the new building technologies. Our government can promote such projects not only like a good PR-action but also like a real thing which carries away people and investors.

Also it is necessary to make efforts to develop domestic production of recuperators, solar batteries and thermocompressors. Or the energy efficient houses in Russia will be too expensive.

And who can became a participant of experimental projects? For example in Denmark there is a group of companies – materials and technologies producers – which are ready to support ideas like “Villa Akarp”. Besides that the government clearly understands its own aim. Denmark wants to become a world leader in “green” technologies export. Russian developers and landowners think about innovations skeptically.

Russian experience of ecological settlements finds out an interesting fact. People with small budget use innovations more actively than people with a big one. And Stenlose South proves that it is possible to realize experimental project without essential government support.

by Valentin Ivanov

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