A hospital in Rwanda orders blood, and it drops out of the sky on a parachute. Seoul swapped an elevated highway for a stream. What looks fixed in one country can turn out to be a choice somewhere else.
This is Part 1 of a trip around the world, western countries included. Every item has a place, a date, and the fine print worth knowing before you share it.
1. Rwanda sends blood to hospitals by drone
In Rwanda, a hospital that needs blood can request it and get the package by parachute. The country began folding drone deliveries into its health system in 2016, linking health facilities to blood supplies stored elsewhere.
Speed is the big story. A 2022 Lancet Global Health study, summarized by the University of British Columbia, looked at more than 12,000 deliveries over four years. The drones beat the road comparison by 79 minutes on average, and less blood product went to waste.
Those results cover only the service and routes studied. Health outcomes and cost-effectiveness are questions the researchers left for further work. A fast drop also fixes just one urgent part of a hospital’s supply problem. Dependable storage and clinical care still have to be in place.
Sources: UBC study summary; Zipline launch announcement.
2. Seoul replaced an elevated highway with a stream
Where an elevated highway once ran through central Seoul, South Korea, people now walk beside water. The Cheonggyecheon restoration opened in 2005 and brought back about 5.8 km of stream corridor. Getting there meant tearing out the freeway and the concrete deck over the stream, according to the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s case study. Bridges stitch the two sides together, so pedestrians can cross the water as well as follow it.
Left alone, the stream’s flow is seasonal, so water from the Han River and subway pump stations is treated and pumped in to keep it steady. Seoul got a public place out of the project, plus a water-management job that never ends.
Sources: Landscape Architecture Foundation case study; Taipei Times report.
3. China turns garbage into electricity, and some plants need more fuel
Some power plants in China have an odd problem. They’re short on garbage.
Chinese waste-to-energy plants burn garbage and use the heat to generate electricity. In July 2025, reporting by The Paper, published in English by Sixth Tone, described some plants without enough to keep running at capacity. It covered Hebi digging up old landfill waste to help fill a capacity gap, and Guangzhou’s 2024 plan to excavate and burn older waste to free landfill space. The reasons differed by place, and only some plants were short.
Burning garbage still produces emissions and ash. China’s GB 18485-2014 standard sets a dioxin limit of 0.1 ng TEQ per cubic meter under its specified reference conditions, the same number as the EU’s 2010 incineration directive. A matching limit doesn’t prove a plant runs pollution-free, and it doesn’t make the two regulatory systems identical.
Sources: Sixth Tone report; China Ministry of Ecology and Environment standard; World Bank report; 2010 EU directive, Annex VI.
4. Copenhagen put a ski slope on a working power plant
In Copenhagen, Denmark, you can ski down the roof of a power plant. CopenHill gives a waste-to-energy plant a second job: an artificial slope that works without natural snow, plus hiking routes on the building. Underneath, Amager Bakke burns garbage to supply electricity and district heat. Energy infrastructure below, something residents can use on top.
The slope doesn’t cancel out the environmental cost of burning waste. Fossil-derived material in the garbage still adds carbon emissions, and Denmark’s waste-sector agreement called for less incineration capacity. However striking the building is, it’s no case for burning everything people throw away.
Sources: State of Green on CopenHill; State of Green on Denmark’s waste-sector agreement.
5. Utrecht built a garage for 12,500 bicycles
Beside Utrecht Central Station in the Netherlands, the Stationsplein garage has room for 12,500 bicycles. The city says the final section opened on August 19, 2019, completing the facility.
Cyclists ride right inside and park across three levels. Digital signs point them to open spaces, and the city describes the first 24 hours of parking as free. The bike ride feeds straight into the station area.
The 12,500 figure counts parking spaces, so it says nothing about how many bikes are there on a given day. It does show how much room the garage gives a daily travel habit: sheltered racks, riding lanes and entrances designed for people arriving on bikes.
Sources: City of Utrecht.
6. Germany puts solar power on apartment balconies
In Germany, a small solar setup can hang from a suitable balcony railing and feed electricity to a household’s appliances. Where a full rooftop system would be impractical, residents can start with a few panels.
GFK Solar’s analysis of the energy register, using data through May 19, 2026, counted about 1.33 million registered balcony systems. The kit it describes is compact: panels, a microinverter and a plug.
Where the panels go matters. Shade or a north-facing balcony can cut output, and the mounting has to suit the building. A kit this size supplies some daytime electricity, and the household stays connected to the wider grid.
Sources: GFK Solar register analysis; The Local on balcony solar registration.
7. Shenzhen converted its city bus fleet to electric power
In 2017, Shenzhen, China, finished electrifying its urban transit fleet. The World Bank’s 2021 case study puts the fleet in the conversion year at 16,359 buses.
That’s one year’s count for an entire city fleet running ordinary service. Charging, maintenance and dispatch had to keep up as buses went back out on their routes all day.
The money is trickier. The study’s ownership-cost comparison favored electric buses with purchase subsidies included and diesel with those subsidies removed. The conversion shows a whole city can do it. The cost result depends on the conditions in the study.
Sources: World Bank Shenzhen case study.
8. Iceland brings underground heat into homes
In Iceland, the heat in most homes comes from underground. About 90% of housing is heated directly with geothermal energy, according to Samorka, the country’s energy and utility federation. Hot water travels through district systems to the buildings, and residents get the warmth through familiar household equipment. The resource is the warmth itself, which can do a different job from generating electricity.
This works because of Iceland’s heat resources and distribution networks. Copying it elsewhere would take suitable geology and a way to get the heat into buildings. In Iceland, the network has made geothermal heating part of daily life.
Sources: Samorka on district heating; Business Iceland.
9. Nearly every new passenger car registered in Norway was electric
In 2025, battery-electric vehicles made up 95.9% of new passenger-car registrations in Norway. The Norwegian Road Federation, OFV, published the annual figure in January 2026.
Read that number carefully. It covers newly registered passenger cars only, and it doesn’t mean 95.9% of the cars already on Norwegian roads were electric. OFV draws that line itself, separating new sales from the much slower turnover of the existing fleet.
So in that year’s new-car market, electric was the usual choice. Older combustion cars stayed on the road while the existing fleet gradually changed.
Sources: Norwegian Road Federation.
10. South Korea weighs food scraps and gives them another use
In apartment complexes that use South Korea’s RFID food-waste system, throwing out scraps starts with identifying yourself to the bin. The equipment weighs what you drop in, and that weight sets the disposal charge, according to the Korea Environment Corporation.
Separate collection lets the scraps be processed into compost, animal feed, biogas and other products. A 2022 Korea Economic Institute account put the country’s food-waste recycling rate at 95%.
That 95% describes the treatment system as of that report. And no, not every scrap becomes food again. The bin is just the part residents see. Behind it sits a larger collection and processing operation.
Sources: Korea Environment Corporation; Korea Economic Institute, 2022.
