Hi everyone! <BR> <BR>I would like to ask all of you Germany -fans if you have experienced the so called "highly develloped" environmental consciousness during yor trip. Is this really obvious or is it just a pseudo consciousness? I am interested in the recycling system, the cleanliness of the cities and the landscapes. Are the standards really higher than anywhere else in Europe??? <BR>Thanks for helping me, Steve

I'm an American and have lived in Munich for just over 1 year - and have an opinion. The city and countryside are incredibly clean. I still can't get over it. There are people paid to wash the bus stop enclosures, for example. (Very necessary around Oktoberfest for the vomit.) There are also lots of recylcing bins around the city; often overflowing, but I rarely see people using them. Of course, you are only allowed to fill them during working hours and I'm at work, hello. The public trash cans often have separate sections for paper, trash, bottles/cans. On the other hand, at work there was no paper recylcing before I set it up.

Hi Steve, <BR> <BR>since I´m German I might be a bit biased, but I still think that Germany is well ahead of most other European countries. <BR>One examplelastic shopping bags.. <BR>It`s not a lack of service that you have to buy them in most stores-it`s to prevent unnecessary garbage. <BR>When I go shopping I take a foldable plastic container(I don`t know if that`s the correct word for it) with me. Everything I buy goes in there and I can carry it from the car into my house. Cold cuts, cheese etc. are put directly into the Tupperware box(where they are kept in the fridge) by the vendor. We only drink water, beer etc. from bottles, which we take back. They are used about 20 times. No cans or plastic bottles-just for camping or outdoor activities. <BR>I just remember living in Spain and going shopping with my Au-Pair mother. We went to the Pryca and we were given about 20 plastic bags(you need a lot energy to produce them). The next time we went I asked her:"Can we take the bags from the last grocery shopping with us and us them again?" She looked at me as if I was stupid and said:"But they don`t cost anything!" <BR>I think that example shows that the awareness of the environmental issue isn`t commom everywhere in Europe and I´m certainly not extreme in my attempts to save our environment compared to other people in Germany. <BR> <BR>Miriam

I was in a German steelworks over 25 years ago, before the current environmental consciousness set in - it was incredibly neat and clean and compared with the same thing in the UK. <BR> I think environmentalism happens to be a good fit in Germany.It suits their national character. <BR>Yes this is a generalisation.I agree that all people who make wild generalisations should be put up against a wall and shot.OK?

Germany is the dirtiest place I have ever been to. Litter is everywhere. I have never seen people recycling their trash. They throw everything in one bin as everyone does. Thats the truth about environmental consciousness in bloody Germany.

Barry, Germany is dirty? Where in Germany have you been? I visit there at least once a year and it's incredibly clean. I have been to restrooms where they even have automatic self-cleaning toilet seats. All the others have attendants who wipe up after every use, even in rest areas on the Autobahn. Everyone I know recycles and they have strict rules about when and where you can change the oil in your car, for example. The green party is very influential there and they prevent more roads from being built, which has caused an incredible amount of congestion. They do this to discourage people from driving, to force them to take public transportation or walk.

Unbelievable what Barry writes. I experienced Germany as a very clean country. There are different household bins for paper, plastic, biological rubbish, glass etc. I don't know where you have been Barry- the rest of Europe (except for Austria/Switzerland) is not as environmentally consciuos as Germany is- that's the fact. That was defenitely a wrong statement Barry...... <BR>H.

I read somewhere recently about German national law that requires manufacturers to build into the prices of their goods the costs of recovery and recycling. Needless to say, this puts German-made goods at a price disadvantage unless similar goods manufactured elsewhere face similar requirements. If I recall correctly, German recycling is among the highest percentage of recycling efforts of any industrialized nation. That is, the percentage of, say, an auto made, used, and junked in Germany is very high. Yet I, too, have seen plenty of dirty places in Germany and not just in the Ruhr industrial district. The poor condition of fir forests in many places attests to the industrial gas pollutants spread by the winds from west to east. It may take decades for those forests to return to their former good health.

Try riding the train from Munich airport into the Hauptbahnhof - every bit as disgusting as a ride through NYC. Garbage and graffiti everywhere.

Hi! <BR>I think Germany is a very clean country. <BR>IN Europe I think it's one of the cleanest. I have been to many places (England, Spain, France, Greece, ...) and I think there is more garbage around. Especially England used to shock me several times. Streets full of litter, no recycling awareness and people dropping everything on the floor. There are of course areas in Germany (especially Berlin-Kreuzberg for example) where graffities and garbage are a part of the alternative, "let us live our own way"- atmosphere. I try to avoid to connect not very clean places with Germanys multicultural districts- but I think there is sort of a connection- whatever the reason might be. Most towns I have seen in Germany were very, very clean- and I felt really good there.