American Views Abroad


Monday, October 01, 2007
 
Reading about Germans in New York and their experience there is a bit like looking through several mirrors at different angles. In yesterday's NYT in Peter Applebome's Our Towns column about the difficulty one German woman encountered when she tried (in vain) to bring her 'energy-conscious sensibilities of life in Europe' into US supermarkets was sadly on target.

'When I was first here, I brought my own bags to the market, but they would stuff the groceries in the plastic bags anyway. Finally, I gave up, she said. People are very nice here. It's more relaxed. But the environmental thing is a little scary. ....When visitors come from Germany, they're baffled by the local customs, the tolerance of such stupendous, routine waste.' www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/nyregion/30towns.html

It certainly is far more relaxed over there, on one hand. You certainly don't have other customers breathing down your back while you load groceries onto the counter, have no chance of checking the prices and then pack it all up again on your own. Shopping is not a form of entertainment here, nor is it a time for small talk or chit-chat. It's a formal affair. You are greeted when entering and wished a nice day or weekend when leaving. To be fair they do start warming up (a bit) once they get to know you. However, the word 'service' or for that matter 'convenience' is not on the agenda here. Or, not on the agenda the way it is in the US. It's considered convenient or practical to bring your own bags when going shopping because it doesn't create even more waste and landfills. It is hardly a bother to bring them either. They tag along with your handbag and make you far more aware of how much you intend to buy. You learn to plan ahead since you very often have to pay for parking (at malls or downtown), and place a coin in for a shopping cart, as well as pay double or triple the price for gas. Credit cards are hardly used in daily transactions.

According to Applebome 'it is estimated that the United States goes through 100 billion plastic bags a year, which take an estimated 12 million barrels of oil to produce and last almost forever.' According to reports in one of today's papers oil may top $100 a barrel soon and there are a lot more people clamouring for more of it than 20 years ago. In today's Sueddeutsche Zeitung on page 3 there was a report on one US woman's fight to be able to hang her laundry out to dry in a community that doesn't allow it so that she can save using up even more energy with a dryer. Look up 'laundry lines' and it is surprising what's behind it all.

Canvas bags, in particular canvas book bags are particularly good for groceries and can be hung on shoulders making them appear less heavy. So much can be recycled and re-used as was noticed a few years ago during a strike of the sanitation department. It lasted a few weeks but it was hardly noticed.

Comments:
It's too bad European ways of conservation and environmental sensibility haven't made it to Asia, either. Plastic bags litter the beaches, get tangled in shoreline trees, float along the waterways and kill marine life.

I'd also hate to think what Germany would look like if everyone drove an SUV or pickup truck and generally lived so wastefully. It's too bad any change in the right direction won't happen until it starts to pinch wallets. Oil would have to hit $200 a barrel or more before before it started to do that.
 
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