This Cologne is green

The Kölner Dom or the Cathedral in Cologne, whose construction began in 1248 and was completed only in 1880, has been described by UNESCO as an "exceptional work of human creative genius". But, to me, equally exceptional was what I observed of a beggar outside the cathedral who had found a slice of pizza.

It was an extremely chilly evening in November and he only had a shawl to cover himself with. Somebody had thrown him a slice of pepperoni and he quickly gobbled it up. All he was now left with was the pizza packet. Then, despite the cold weather, in which one would rather sit in the warmth of a fireplace than move about in the street, this bloke got up and walked a good five minutes to dump the pizza wrapper in a dustbin, before hurrying back to his spot.

As it turned out, this was the first of many remarkable things I was to find in Cologne that makes the city an ecological example: a river-turned-sewer was being remade into a river, private landowners and farmers were being paid to protect the ecosystem, and a 'crazy' professor was going around in his mobile classroom named after an
earthworm.

The crazy professor
Well, the professor wasn't exactly crazy, but he looked the part, with his long curling hair and animated expressions, his Frog soft toy and large colourful sheets to play with children. He conducts his classes in a bus named Lumbricus, a European species of earthworm.

The bus itself is so colourful, with pictures of earthworms on the outside, that one might think it is part of the many carnivals that take place in Cologne. On the roof of the bus are solar panels to power the bus and all the equipment inside: camera, computer and television set.

Professor Ottmar Hartwig's Lumbricus isn't the only such bus either. Several buses in Germany are part of the Association for Mobile Environmental Education Projects (MEEPs).

Prof Hartwig uses a Chinese proverb to explain the concept: "Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Let me take part and I will understand."

As the professor spoke, I took in the natural beauty of Cologne, with the Lumbricus parked next to the Rhine flowing gently past, the tip of the Kölner Dom cathedral shimmering in the evening light above the buildings, the clear sky, the clear roads, the green parks and their brown benches speckled with yellow autumn leaves.
Blue sky above the Ruhr

It sounds strange now, but five decades back, in 1961, the German chancellor Willy Brandt, looking at the pitiable condition of the environment in this area, had said, "We want to see blue sky above the Ruhr".

The Ruhr is part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which comprises Cologne, Dusseldorf and a few other cities. In those days of heavy industrialisation, smoke hid the skies, and the roads were forever covered with waste. This was in fact the most industrial region in Germany from the 1800s, after large deposits of coal were found there.

How the scene has changed now! According to German law, all producers are responsible for the recycling and disposal of whatever they produce. Hence there is the Duales System Deutschland GmbH (DSD), an industry-funded organisation that collects discarded packets from households and streets.

Producers pay DSD a fee for this service and in return these companies can use the famous Green Dot logo on their products. The logo indicates that the manufacturer is responsible for the recycle and disposal of its products. The packages picked up by DSD are sorted, recycled and marketed back to the manufacturers.

Helmut Schmitz, head of public affairs, DSD, is currently enthused over Coca Cola's announcement that from 2011, half of all its products' packaging in Europe will come from recycled products. "More companies will now follow suit, which is very good for our system and the environment," said Schmitz.

Cleaning up the river
Another key initiative is the cleaning up of the river Emscher, a tributary of the Rhine, which had become a dumping ground for industrial and residential waste. Floods used to bring the dirty river water almost into people's homes, leading to outbreaks of disease. Finally, in 1999, the city administrators in partnership with large enterprises of the region formed the Emschergenossenschaft, a self-governed, non-profit company to take care of the problem.

The company is now restructuring and cleaning the entire river Emscher. The river water is piped into a plant, which separates waste from the water. The treated water is then released back into the river while the sludge left behind is burnt in an incinerator. The Emschergenossenschaft is also widening the river and reintroducing many aquatic insect species that had disappeared from the river.
Incentives for land-owners

The North Rhine-Westphalia state has earmarked 2,231 protected sites in a bid to revive its ecosystem. Since most of these are made up of privately-owned agricultural land, the State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection is paying these owners to maintain the ecology of the region. "Earlier the ecology of the North Rhine-Westphalia

region was not being taken care of, as a result of which there are now only two peat bogs and a few heathlands left. Many birds and animals had disappeared. But now they are returning," says Dr Dirk Hinterlang from the agency.

As I returned back to my hotel room on a late evening, with a flight out of Cologne to catch the following morning, I saw a similar image. Beside the road was an area covered with trees and beyond that the river Rhine. The Lumbricus was parked there. As I looked closer, I saw Prof Hartwig emerging from the thicket, holding a plant and following him was a bunch of excited students.