If you're a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I a) do own a car (or, to be really correct, I own my own company, and said company owns a car, and that b) I am very fond of cycling, and will try to use the bike or public transport instead of driving whenever possible.

Car vs. Bike is, to my constant consternation, a very emotionally heated debate here in Germany. I really don't understand this - and I guess quite a lot of it is due to some anti-green propaganda. But let me explain this a bit better.

It's quite typical that, if somebody says "people could take the bike to do that" or "bikes are more sustainable than cars", someone else cries out "but you cannot forbid people to use the car, not everyone can be car-free" or "but bikes are not suitable to transport heavy goods or multiple people". Basically, what happens is the implication that everyone who is pro-bicycle, or mentions benefits from bikes wants everyone to instantly ditch their car and go by bike everywhere and for everything, no matter what.

This is definitely not true, but it happens all the time, and it's not making the situation better.

I grew up in a small town at the end of nowhere, and everybody there used the car for about everything. Children rode bikes, but as soon as you turned 17, you'd register for driving school, and you'd typically get your license on your 18th birthday (the earliest point possible back then), and then you had mobility, and freedom, and many of my peers also had their first own car then, or got use of the family car. My home town is not very bike-friendly regarding the streets, and it's a bit hilly, but both things are also not very bad, so it would be perfectly possible to cycle more than is usual there. On the other hand, there used to be next to no public transport (which has not changed much) - so for any visits to neighbouring villages or towns, you'd need a car.

Today, I live in a bike-friendly city, and we're doing all of our everyday stuff by bike. There's also decent public transport, which allows to take bikes along in the metro trains so you can use your own transport for the last mile. However, there's still the car - and I need that for going to fairs and markets, because there's just no way that I could transport all the things necessary to set up a booth in public transport. Exceptions apply, such as when I went to Dublin for WorldCon - though I had most of the booth logistics supplied by the con there. If you have to bring your own tables and seats like for most fairs, that's just straight out not possible.

So. I am fully aware of the benefits of a car - but I'm also aware of their drawbacks. Personally, I think that bikes are the best thing for mobility in many cases, and many circumstances. They are resource-friendly (and even an e-bike uses much less material and energy than a car), they keep you healthy, they are quiet and don't take up much space, it's easy to find a parking space for them just where you want to go, and for short to medium distances in daily life, especially in towns, they are faster than a car. Even for the 10-something kilometers to our regular bouldering place, it takes us just as long to go by car as it does by bike! Yes, they have limited transport capacity (though it's amazing what you can pack on if you have a bit of practise), and they do not protect you from the weather (unless you have a velomobile), but these are things where there's still the option to take a car. (Or lend a cargo bike.)

Nobody of the sane people promoting the bike as a very good option for personal transport wants everyone to stop using cars right now. All that we want is for more people to consider cycling (or walking) instead of hopping into the car more often, because every little bit helps. So it makes me very sad when the response to "more cycling" is an automatic "bikes cannot solve everything!!!!11!!". No, they cannot, but neither can cars.

And then there's e-bike bashing, too. Yes, they take more resources to make than a non-electrified bike. There's also the people looking down their noses at e-bikers, because apparently, in their minds, if you need the motor, you are a lesser person. WTF? If an e-bike means there will be more cycling instead of car driving, I'm all, all for it. I don't care for the reason that someone adds a motor to a bike, whether it's laziness or unfitness or some other physical condition or the fact that it's just more fun to go supported or the need to get somewhere reliably quickly without breaking a sweat or the desire to ride on the latest fad wave or the fact that the friends in the cycling group all have an e-bike and there's no way to keep up without one - any reason is valid. And any kilometer done by bike, whether e or not, whether it's to replace a car trip or it's a fun ride just for cycling's sake, is a good thing.

I'm done with my rant for now... but I'm curious: Have you encountered that "you want to forbid everything! go away"-phenomenon, too? Regarding cycles, or something that a green party said or promoted, where you are? And what's your opinion on the bike-vs-car thing? Let me know in the comments...

It's May the Fourth, so may the fourth be with you!

Yes, it's a bad one, and it's not getting better from year to year. But since I'm a sucker for bad puns, and good ones, and especially ones that are so bad they are coming around again to emerge on the good side... I still enjoy it.

In that vibe, here's the good old Grocery Store Wars video, because it's Star Wars-related, and it's punny, and I really enjoy it. Also, sadly, even though this video is quite old by now... it's still current.


We're still having trouble with pesticide use (killing off our insects); there's a lot of unsustainable farming practise, including fish farming. Mind you, I don't think that just buying organic food is the golden solution - I'd guess it is more sustainable to buy a locally grown cucumber that has been commercially produced by a farmer using fertiliser and other agricultural chemicals responsibly, than to buy an organic avocado from Peru. Lots of organically grown things also come in plastic packaging, including fruit and vegetables - also not the best thing for our environment.

So personally, I try to buy food that is locally grown and unpackaged, bringing my own containers to the shop or market. Bonus if it's organic, but local and unpackaged actually has higher priority on my list; we basically only buy things from outside the region if it's something that cannot be grown here, such as bananas and oranges.

Next best is re-useable packaging - deposit glass jars, for instance. Next best: paper or paper-based, plastic-free packaging material. Following this are one-way glass jars, which we re-use in our own household for storage of stuff we buy unpackaged, or for canning our own things. Home-made convenience food does have its own charm.

We're thus down to buying or consuming very little plastic packaging these days. A lot of things only come in plastic packaging, and there is an easy solution for most of these, for us: We just don't buy them. On closer inspection, most of these, for us, can be replaced by something equally delicious that has no plastic wrapper, or we can make it ourselves. (Mascarpone is one of these. Tortilla chips have been successfully produced here. It has the side effect of actually appreciating treats a lot more.)

Meat and fish are the really difficult bits here, especially with the additional hygiene rules implemented by a lot of shops due to the Corona thing. To our great delight, we've recently discovered a small farm shop that makes it possible to bring our own containers, so the meat problem is more or less solved. It means we'll eat what kind of meat they had - but since most of my meal planning goes "Let's see what we get at the market, and then we'll make it work somehow", that has not brought much of a change.   Fish, though... there's one local fish farmer on the Saturday market, and he has lovely fish, but it's all plastic packaged.  So we've reduced the amount of fish consumed, and are keeping our eyes open to find some alternative where we can get unpackaged fresh fish.

It's a journey. It makes some things harder, and it means not eating a lot of things because they are out of season, or only available in plastic - but on the other hand, the same thing makes life easier in a way, as well. If it's clear that something will not be bought due to reason X, Y, or Z, that makes shopping decisions quite a bit faster... and seasonal things a lot more awaited, and appreciated.

So. Use the fork, Luke. Use it wisely. And if you suddenly find yourself in a quite different movie: Choose wisely.

I've mentioned my or our quest to reduce plastic, especially single-use plastic, in our life. It's still ongoing, this quest, of course - and some things prove to be trickier than others.

For instance, it's fairly easy to get some things free of any packaging. There's a shop selling fairtrade coffee in Erlangen where you can bring your own container. (Not currently, as they are closed under the restrictions of the lockdown, but generally, they are there.) Oil and vinegar can be bought in a shop offering liquids from the vat, so you can get as much or as little as you want into your own bottle, very handy. Dry legumes, such as beans and lentils, and pasta are available in bulk with reasonable (or no) packaging, for reasonable prices (maybe with a little bit of searching). For fresh produce, we've been going to the market anyways, and there's unpackaged stuff in the supermarket as well, where you can bring your own nets or bags to pack it and carry it home.

Milk products were one of our main waste producers for a good while, but we've found nice Quark sold in deposit glasses, and we're getting our milk straight from the farm these days - there's a filling station, you bring your own bottle, and pump as much raw milk as you would like. Right beside that machine there's a vending machine with eggs and potatoes as well. We also found the one brand of butter that is wrapped in (special, but plastic-free) paper only. So... lots of things dealt with.

We are willing, by the way, to forego quite a few things instead of buying them plastic-wrapped; but for most of our staple daily-life things, we have sources now.

The last troublesome items on our regular shopping list are meat and fish... and decaf coffee. Meat and fish are still mostly unsolved problems, partly due to current Corona-induced hygiene restrictions, so that's something where we try to reduce the plastic consumption but accept that it is not zero just yet.

Decaf coffee is consumed more than regular coffee in our household, and the shop in Erlangen doesn't offer decaf... so we did stick with our previous solution for a while, which was a delicious, fair trade decaf packaged in the usual plastic bag. Now, though, we've found a supplier for decaf coffee beans, willing to send things in paper upon request (which is necessary due to some other weird German regulations) - selling fair trade coffee roasted by hand by himself, with lots of passion. Hooray! Plus I'm endlessly amused by the name of his shop: Dr. Kaffee's Röstorium. (We all know by now I'm easily amused, right?)

And now... I think I'll have some coffee.

 
 
 

It's Friday, and for this Friday, FFF have planned to take up protests again - because even though we're all still in the grip of the pandemic, and numbers are unfortunately going up about everywhere in the world (gaah!), our other issue, the climate change, is not going to go away. Especially not with all the extra single-use plastics that are currently necessary (more or less...) due to hygiene requirements.

I'm hoping that the extra restrictions placed on vendors will peter out quickly now, or get lifted, but I'm not getting my hopes to high. It's time to make it possible again to fill customer's containers, in order to save single-use packaging. Germany used to be at the point where it was finally possible at most bakeries and butcher's shops to bring your own bag for baked goods, and your own boxes for meat, and get those filled. This has largely been stopped by the extra measurements taken due to the pandemic. Which I can understand - but now that we know more about the virus and how it spreads, and especially that touching items is not the primary vector of the virus by far, it's time to get back to more sustainable ways of shopping.

So. Fridays For Future protests today. Here in Erlangen, it won't be a single one, intending to be a huge central protest, but there's several smaller ones taking place - so that protesters can keep their distance (plus wearing masks). If you're up to something like this, you can find protests taking place near you on klima-streik.org for Germany, or on Global Climate Strike for all over the world.

See you there!

Because the Forststeig trail is a true multi-day hiking trail, there's no rubbish disposal along the route, apart from the one regular campsite in Ostrov (which is after the second day of hiking or so). This means, and you are explicitly told about that on the website, that you have to carry your rubbish with you until you reach the end of the trail.

Our home-made bars, and the mostly home-made other foodstuffs, meant that we had a very manageable amount of rubbish accumulating on the trip. Also a good thing, because you are required to take everything along with you for the whole journey, there's no waste disposal along the trekking route. Because I was curious, I weighed our rubbish upon our return... and it was 140 g of plastics. (That's not counting the ziplock bags we had at home and brought along, which will be re-used.) We had thrown away about 10 g previously, at the camping place in Ostrov, and of course there was a good amount more of it when preparing the things at home, in form of the packaging for the ingredients used. It was not much in comparison to some of the other hikers on the trail - due to the homemade bars, and not using convenience food, regular or hiker-specific. It was still quite a bit, though.

So many things are still sold in plastic. Even organically grown stuff - which is especially hard for me to understand. I can sort of get it when it's soggy stuff that is being sold, or moist and oily things, but dried beans, or grains, or pasta? Please, come on. These can very well live in paper packaging.

This feeling of it being too much plastic by far was reinforced when we came back home: Indra Starke-Ottich's book "Mein Weg aus der Plastikfalle" had arrived during our time away, and was waiting for me on our table. I confess I bought the book mostly because I wanted to support Indra's cause, not because I thought I actually needed it.



Well. I now know that I did need it, and a lot of other people might also need it. The book is written in a very nice manner, with a wonderful voice that pleased me throughout. It was a gruesome read, though - and really drove home the necessity to change our ways, and our consumption, as much and as quickly as possible. I did know that plastic is not good, but did not realise how big a problem plastic poses for the environment. It basically never degrades, only falls apart into smaller pieces, which can then be consumed easily by animals and people... with the result of the average person eating about one credit card's worth of micro- and nanoplastics per week. Per week! Eeek!

Reason enough for us to look over our lifestyle again, and make a few more changes. One of them, for me, was installing an app called "replace plastic", which aims to show the makers (and packagers) of things that their customers do not want everything plastic-wrapped. Once you have the app installed, you enter your name and postcode. Then, whenever there's an item you use, or would like to use, you can scan the barcode; the app will pass the request on to the manufacturer once 20 people have scanned this item or after about 4 weeks, whatever happens earlier. That is a very quick, very pain-free and easy way to ask for a more environmentally-friendly packaging!

Another change is that I will be much more consequent in getting foods without plastic packaging. Foodstuff packing is, like probably everywhere, where the bulk of our plastic waste comes from, even though we've been trying to reduce that for a good while now. We've switched to milk in glass bottles and, more recently, we're getting our milk as raw milk directly from the farmer, and we found a source for quark in deposit glasses. (The quark costs more than twice as much as the plastic version, but it's organic as well, which means the cows do get better treatment. Our milk is actually cheaper by about the same factor now, as it's sold directly by the farmer, who will earn more per litre of milk sold at that price than for selling to a dairy factory.)

For the other food things, there's fortunately a few online shops offering plastic-free things that are hard to get locally, such as poppy seeds. Finding those involved some internet surfing, and some checking and comparing of prices to get an indication of what is sensible, and what is not. And now it's just getting those changes done, one step at a time, until they are the new and comfy way of doing stuff...