Environmental Discussion: Freiburg Eco-City and the Trash Vortex

This discussion post examines Freiburg, Germany, as an example of an eco-city, highlighting its sustainable policies focused on energy, transportation, and waste management. Freiburg's efforts include investments in renewable energy, extensive bicycle paths, and a commitment to reducing carbon emissions. The discussion then shifts to the trash vortex, a gyre of marine debris in the North Pacific, emphasizing its detrimental effects on marine life and potential consequences for human health through food web contamination and pollution. The post references studies on the accumulation of plastic in the ocean and its impact on marine ecosystems, advocating for greater awareness and action to mitigate these environmental challenges. Desklib provides a platform to explore further solved assignments and past papers on similar topics.

UNIVERSITY#
COURSE
Online Assessment Discussion
ASSIGNMENT

Eco-city
Freiburg City-Germany
An ecocity is an essential structural environment built based on the principles of
environmental principles, with an objective of elimination of carbon waste and enhanced
energy production purely on renewable sources of energy. Ecocity criterion is based on self-
contained economic, utilization of renewable energy, efficiency and planned public transport,
conservation of resources, environmental restoration and affordable housing infrastructure.
Freiburg City in Germany is one such city which encompasses eco-city fundamental
principles. The city has put in place sustainable policies and focuses on energy, transport and
utilizes the three pillars which entail energy savings, adoption of new technology and usage
of renewable energy sources.
Investments have focussed on environmentally friendly energy sources utilizing the use
of solar energy and are considered solar capital. Freiburg city has invested heavily in the
transportation system. It has established an estimate of 500 km worth of bicycle paths with
over 5000 parking spaces for bicycles. The city further has resolved to cut carbon dioxide
emissions by 40% and achieve a climate neutral by the year 2050, (Buehler & Pucher, 2011).
Freiburg city further focuses majorly on waste management with paper products being
estimated at 80% of the recycled products. Financial incentives programs have been set aside
to offer discounts for waste collection services. Incineration of waste products has been
taking place since the year 2005 and is reused o supply electricity to over 25,000 households
in the city.
Freiberg is an environmental green city with 43% of the area being woodland.
Woodland convention for the city was adopted in the years 2009. For the past 20 years
Freiburg has worked to maintain Public Park and following principles of nature which
include cessation of pesticide use, lees grown mown and 50,000 line street and various parks,
(Pflaum, 2016).

Trash Vortex
Public health menace
This is a gyre of marine debris, which collects plastics from floating trash. The patch is
highly evident by high concentration of plastics and chemical slurry with other debris which
are situated at the North Pacific Gyre. The patch areas cover an estimate of 1.6 million square
kilometres, with the concentration of the plastic being at around 100 kilograms per square
kilometer. There is an estimated 80, 000 metric tonnes of plastic which are estimated to
inhabit the patch, with the size and concentration of plastics influx increasing, research has
shown that there is a rapid accumulation of the patch, (Lebreton et al., 2018).
The marine debris is dangerous to the marine aquatic life. The sea turtles loggerhead’s
use the jellies made from plastic bags which it considers as its best food, further the
Albatrosses often mistake plastic resin pellets as fish eggs which they give to the chicks to
feed on them.
Further, the marine debris has shown disturbances on marine food webs. The
microplastic plastic trash which deposit on the surface of the ocean blocks the light from the
sun from reaching the algae and the plankton, as they are common auto trophs in the marine
aquatic life. Due to the threatening of the algae and plankton, animals which depend on them
as food gets diminished food, decreasing the populations size. The decrease reduces food for
the apex producers such as whales, tuna and sharks, which decreases food to the people and
making them expensive, causing public food shortage impacting on health outcome, (Eriksen
et al., 2014).
Plastics polluted inside are leached out and absorb harmful pollutants. Its breakdown
though photodegradation, colorants, and chemicals leach out chemicals such as bisphenol
which has tremendous effects on the environment and severe health problems to the public,
(Ryan, Moore, van Franeker & Moloney 2009).

References
Buehler, R., & Pucher, J. (2011). Sustainable transport in Freiburg: lessons from Germany's
environmental capital. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 5(1), 43-
70.
Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L. C., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borrero, J. C., ... &
Reisser, J. (2014). Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic
pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. PloS one, 9(12), e111913.
Lebreton, L., Slat, B., Ferrari, F., Sainte-Rose, B., Aitken, J., Marthouse, R., ... & Noble, K.
(2018). Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic.
Scientific reports, 8(1), 4666.
Pflaum, S. A. (2016). CITY VIEW: Freiburg, Germany. In State of the World (pp. 135-140).
Island Press, Washington, DC.
Ryan, P. G., Moore, C. J., van Franeker, J. A., & Moloney, C. L. (2009). Monitoring the
abundance of plastic debris in the marine environment. Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 364(1526), 1999-2012.