What the TRNC can teach the UK - No 2

Readers Mail….

By A A Wisley….

What the TRNC can teach the UK – No 2

The Circular Economy, a light-hearted investigation

The idea behind the circular economy is quite straightforward although, in practice, it is more difficult to achieve. Put simply, the waste created during the manufacture of an item or from its end-of-life disposal should become the input of another process the product of which is, in turn, similarly recycled. Of course, to some extent, this is already done but to improve the virtuous cycle major changes are needed in product design and manufacturing processes.

Northern Cyprus is little affected by this as it manufactures relatively little, apart from farming and concrete apartment blocks. However, it has enthusiastically adopted the philosophy in its services sector. Two illustrations may show this.

Property purchases

Lawyers are very adept at recycling. Picture a couple approaching retirement who decide to buy a retirement home in the TRNC. They appoint a lawyer to help them with the purchase of an off-plan property. The contract with which they are presented is clearly recycled from a very ancient, unchanged form, the language of which is as impenetrable as Minoan linear A.

In the interests of environmental and energy conservation the lawyer eschews any form of communication with his client other than to request substantial payments on account of his fees and of stage payments for the property being bought.

Eventually, having paid in full, the couple come to Cyprus, hoping to take possession of the property. The clients call the lawyer for an appointment. He is very important and too busy to take the call. They visit his office in Kyrenia. He has suddenly had to go to his office in Nicosia. They visit his office in Nicosia. He has suddenly had to go to his office in Famagusta. They visit his office in Famagusta. He has suddenly had to go to his office in Kyrenia. And so it goes on in a circular way.

In despair, the couple consult another lawyer who, eventually, is able to tell them that due to an unusual, but small oversight the first lawyer had failed to register the contract. Incidentally he had also overlooked some other minor details such as the facts that the seller of the property did not own it and that the land was already mortgaged to a bank. Adding to their woes, the second lawyer mentions in passing, that the construction company had gone bust and that the bank had foreclosed on the property and resold it at “auction”, for pennies to the sister of the original owner.

The second lawyer suggests that the couple should to sue everyone concerned to recover the lost money, claims which he guaranteed would be a successful. Of course he would require a very large payment on account of his fees. After many months of silence, except for requests for further substantial payments on account, the second lawyer tells the unfortunate couple that they cannot bring any action because too much time has gone by. The couple die of broken bank accounts. The second lawyer deals with the administration of their estates in such a way as to make sure that everything has been recycled into his investments account.

Garden maintenance service

The second example is that of the garden maintenance service provided by developers for their holiday complexes. It might also be described as “Leaf Blower Hell” or “Service Charge Vacuuming”. The regime starts on Monday morning when the gardener fires up his huge petrol driven leaf blower, which can be heard from several kilometres away, to blow the dust and leaves from the developments roads and car parks. This he seeks to achieve using the “random walk” approach, like that used in early robotic vacuum cleaners. There is no organised path but they just wander around on a random basis which, if they operate for long enough, will eventually cover the entire area being cleaned. Of course, this approach takes many times longer than a more organised reticulated method and thus earns more for the gardener.

Vacuum cleaners are designed to trap the dust. Leaf blowers, however, just move it around. In consequence, at the end of an arduous and noisy day of blowing, the car parks and roadways will be still be covered in dust which has merely been moved from one part of the estate to another.

Repeating the service

This is good news. It means that the gardener will need to do it all over again the following day and the next and the next. Another benefit is that all the cars will now be covered with dust and will require washing. The nearby apartments will be blanketed with dust and will need cleaning. So, the simple but totally unnecessary job of recycling dust has created work for car washers, cleaners as well as the gardeners. It may also have driven residents to distraction by the incessant buzzing noise who may then need psychiatric counselling.

There is much to be admired in these environmentally friendly job creation endeavours.