Recent Environmental Changes You May Have Noticed
During summer, we
all spend more time outside, and the state of nature becomes more
apparent to us, as well as the need to protect and preserve natural
areas.
In the past years, there have been a few new laws and
policies enacted in Estonia that aim to raise awareness about the
environment and make it easier for everyone to do small acts that ensure
that natural areas are respected.
First of all, many cities and
urban areas have started to promote no mow zones. These are small areas
in parks or lawns that would otherwise have been mowed and treated with
chemicals that prevent the growth of weeds. Now, there are many areas
left to nature, except some specific plants being cultivated there to
increase the number of pollinators, specifically bees. Reduction in
mowing also helps with decreasing noise pollution and use of energy for
gas powered mowers.
Secondly,
caps on plastic bottles cannot be removed that easily anymore! This is
one of the most controversial changes, since people buy soft drinks on a
daily basis, and it takes a bit longer to get used to. The purpose of
this change is to ensure that bottle caps do not end up in nature and
that they are more likely to end up together with the plastic bottle at
the recycling center. Estonia already has an extensive bottle recycling
network thanks to the deposit system, and now bottle caps will also be
returned along with the bottles.
Lastly,
cities have transformed some streets or areas into car free zones. In
early August, you could see this on Vabaduse puiestee (Freedom Avenue)
in Tartu. During the summer, it transforms into Autovabaduse puiestee
(Car-free Avenue). The multilane street becomes an entertainment area
that connects the green areas on the Emajõgi riverbank and the parks in
the city centre into a large pedestrian only zone filled with summer
fun. The historic city centre therefore regains some of its medieval
charm with only pedestrians and bikes being allowed to enter on top of
making the giving space to cultural events and making it safer for
people of all ages to enjoy.
This is just a short list of some of
the recent changes in Estonia that aim to make cities more nature and
people friendly, as well as promoting a cleaner environment in general.
Which of these changes have you already noticed, and are there any
similar initiatives in your home country? It would be great to hear
about all of these in this forum thread.
Ingrid, OLS Community Manager – Estonian