St Prex, a Vaud town of 5,100 people, inaugurated its new state-of-the-art recycling centre in 2011, now a busy place
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Batteries over 5kg will be taxed at purchase, rather than when they are recycled, starting 1 January 2012, says Bern. Household and small batteries currently carry a recycling tax, at purchase, but not larger ones, such as car batteries and industrial ones.
The new system is designed to boost the rate of recycling from last year’s 69 percent to at least 80 percent.
The change is also designed to ensure funds for collecting, transporting and recycling batteries, work that the federal government assigns to Inobat, a private organization based in Bern. By law, businesses in Switzerland that sell anything with batteries are obliged to take used batteries from customers; the country has some 11,000 collection points.
Swiss are world champion glass recyclers, some way to go on batteries
Some of the money collected by the revised tax will also be used for consumer education, to increase awareness of the need to recycle batteries and to raise the rate of recycling, 69 percent at 31 December 2010. The federal government has set a goal of 80 percent recycled batteries to preserve Switzerland’s natural resources. The figure is well below those for recycling several other items. The Swiss are world champion glass recyclers, with a 94 percent rate.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Gabrielle Giffords, US congresswoman who was shot in the head in Arizona in January 2011, met the press in Monday and spoke publicly for the first time since her long road to recovery began. Giffords was shot during an attack on her that took the lives of six other people and injured several more. She is able to speak, but haltingly, and still has a limp, but her recovery after just 10 months is described by many as “miraculous” given that the bullet travelled the entire left side of her brain.
The Los Angeles Times/AP reports that
“The television interview comes as fellow victims of the shooting came to Washington to testify in favor of a gun-control bill. They said that Giffords’ appearance represents a major milestone for them as it helps them cope with the trauma they’ve endured over the past 10 months. About a dozen survivors and family members are in Washington lobbying for legislation that would extend criminal background checks to all gun sales and enhance the quality of the FBI’s criminal background checks.”
ABC News video clips from Diane Sawyer’s interview with Giffords and astronaut husband Mark Kelly.
Official data released 31 January shows 16% rebound
Japanese manufacturing began to recover in 2010, figures released by the government 31 January show, with industrial production up 15.9 percent for the year, after a nearly 22 percent drop in 2009. Automobiles, electronics and steel manufacturing led the rebound. It was not enough to cheer up the Tokyo stock market Monday, however, where shares fell over continuing worries about instability in the Middle East, as protests in Egypt carry on.
Real estate and recovery in share prices account for improvement
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Per capita net worth for Swiss households rose to about CHF333,000 in 2009, up from CHF316,000.
Home values rose in Switzerland in 2010
Housing prices and a recovery in share prices have brought Swiss household income back up to the level of 2007, before the 2008 global economic crisis, figures published Friday 19 November by the Swiss National Bank show. Financial assets held by households grew 8.7 percent in 2009, up CHF151 billion to CHF1,883 billion.
“Movements in financial assets were strongly influenced by rising stock market prices: roughly one-third of the price losses suffered in 2008 was recouped in 2009 on stock markets in Switzerland and abroad,” the central bank notes in a statement. The stock market improvement resulted in the value of household shares rising by CHF43 billion to CHF212b. The value of collective investment schemes climbed by CHF19b to CHF181b.
Pension funds see contributions outweigh benefits drawn
Pension funds, too, saw an improvement: contributions to occupational pension schemes exceeded the benefits drawn and price gains were recorded on pension fund investments, says the SNB.
More home buyers and rising apartment prices account for higher real estate value
Finn the bear getting antibiotics. He and his intruder are both recovering 25 November.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 25-year-old man mauled by Finn, a four-year-old bear at Bern’s new bear park, has told authorities he was trying to retrieve a plastic bag, according to Swissinfo. The mentally handicapped man has lived at a home in the town of Koeniz for some years and has been allowed to spend Saturdays walking around Bern on his own, as he has not been considered to be a danger to himself or others. The man sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries.
Finn, who attacked the man when he entered the bear’s enclosed area, was shot by a policeman, but the park announced Wednesday 25 November that Finn is doing better, although another day is required to see if he will need surgery:
Daniel Albrecht, 29 April 2009
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Daniel Albrecht, badly injured during a fall in Kitzbuehl, Austria 22 January 2009, met with reporters Wednesday 29 April for the first time since his accident. He said that he would like to ski on the World Cup circuit again, but that he is like a junior skier, having to start all over again. Albrecht, who at the time of the crash was the super-combined world champion, had already won two giant slalom races early in the season. He doesn’t recall the accident and said it felt “very strange” to watch it on a screen.
