Something that took me by surprise in Vienna was their pfand scheme. Let me explain; a lot of grocery shops have a pfand station where you can take all your plastic bottles and essentially donate them so that they can be recycled and used again. Although it is wonderful for the environment, the part of pfand that makes it even better is the monetary aspect of it. For every bottle deposited you get money back.
It’s summer now and the sun has embraced Vienna after a long winter. People are lazing on every patch of grass they can find, soaking in the light. This of course means picnics are at an all-time high and with it, an excess of drinks. However, instead of seeing the empty corpses of almdudlers strewn on the grass, you are met with clean parks and the welcoming sent of freshly blooming flowers. A lot of this is thanks to pfand.
Funnily enough, I’m currently in a Billa, the one in Franz Joseph station with a comically large bag filled to the brim with empty bottles that had sustained me in the over 20 degree weather that was so foreign to me, especially having come from England. I took out the bottle of lemonade and grinned, remembering the card game I had done so terribly in. In my defence I can never truly understand the rules of card games at first. I took out another drink and recalled the pleasant breeze I felt when drinking it on the balcony in front of the Albertina. It had been funny to realise how I was surrounded by some of the most important buildings whilst having a casual chat with fellow exchange students. In front of us was the opera house, beside us the burggarten and behind us one of the biggest art galleries in Vienna. And all of them maintained, clean and looked after constantly. I can’t recall a moment of seeing litter anywhere. It saddened me to think how odd that was to me due to England’s inability to incentive the public. Not only did the streets feel clean and welcoming but the environment was greatly benefitting and so were the public. Now that I know it’s a possibility, I know it will become so much more poignant to me when I am back home. This epitomised the importance of traveling and doing so sustainably as it opened my eyes in ways I hadn’t even conceived. If people don’t know there is multiple easy and directly beneficial ways to be sustainable they won’t venture out to find them, believing it to not be an option. I learned a lot of things on this year abroad and didn’t expect one of them to be sustainability, but due to its importance here, I came to a lot of realisations which proved to me the importance of travelling and looking after our world so we can continue to do so.
