For those of us who have spent our entire life (or most of it) in the United States, it’s easy to become accustomed to the way we live and the large amount of material we consume. While many discussions of environmental impact focus on China and India as having the two largest populations in the world, their per capita ecological footprints, or measures of harmful impacts each person has on the Earth, are nowhere near the greatest. The US had a per capita ecological footprint of 8.1 global hectares in 2016, only surpassed by Kuwait at 8.6 gha, United Arab Emirates at 8.9 gha, and Qatar at 14.4 gha, according to the Global Footprint Network. For comparison, China and India had per capita footprints of 3.6 and 1.2 gha, respectively.

Ecological footprint is correlated with resource consumption, which is oftentimes equated to a better quality of life. However, many other developed countries, particularly in Europe, had footprints between 4 and 6 gha, proving that development does not have to have as large an environmental impact as it does in the United States. If you haven’t been outside the United States much, you may be wondering how the lifestyles of people in other countries differ enough from ours to create such a contrast in footprints.

Clothes Dryers

Believe it or not, many people in the developed world, particularly in Europe, do not have machines to dry their clothes, or, if they do, they often don’t use them and opt for line drying instead. I learned this on a visit to Germany last summer for my first time out of the country when the guest bath towels I was given were much rougher than the soft ones I was accustomed to at home. I found out that this was because they had been air dried (but don’t worry, the rest of my clothes turned out as soft as usual). Many of our European counterparts cite that hanging their clothes outside works just as well, saves space in the house and saves money. Green America also adds that air drying can reduce your household’s carbon footprint by 2,400 pounds a year, lowers your electricity bill, saves time via not dealing with laundromats or wrinkles and literally saves your clothes by preventing wear and tear of the dryer.

Bottle Deposits

You’ve likely read the label of a plastic bottle and seen that it can be recycled for a few cents after drinking, but have you seen an abundance of locations to return them and collect that money? Though this TripAdvisor article states that many grocery stores have bottle return places, only 11 states have bottle deposit laws. (They are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont.) This means there’s a good chance you don’t have widespread access to returning bottles for refunds, a method that can help reduce littering and encourage recycling. An exemplary model of this is also Germany (per capita footprint of 4.8 gha). Most grocery stores have a machine that immediately issues a refund slip for use in the store after users put their recyclables in. Another upside of this was that people were checking trash bins or asking others for empty bottles rather than money, all while keeping public areas clean!

Recycling Bins

While many public places have both recycling bins and trash cans nowadays, it is not uncommon to still find areas with only trash cans. In this case, some of us may try to hold onto our recyclables until we can dispose of them properly, but this is not practical or a priority for everyone. Some areas also do excel in having more specific recycling bins (paper, glass, etc.) or even compost bins, but they are not as prevalent as in many other countries. Waste Advantage Magazine praised Switzerland (4.6 gha) and South Korea (6.0 gha) in particular for their variety and distinguishability of different bins for different recycling that helps minimize the amount being discarded as waste. These two countries are in the top 5 as far as recycling goes, though Germany tops the list with 56.1% of its waste being recycled. The United States just made the top 25 with a little less than 35 percent being recycled (though this is the reported rate rather than an adapted rate to account for various measuring means).

Plastic Bags

Only two states, Hawaii and California, have statewide plastic bag bans, and four have mandatory recycling or reuse programs. Ten states have preemptive bans on banning plastic bags, according to ReuseThisBag.com. Throughout the rest of the world, 32 countries have bans on plastic bags, and 18 of those are in Africa. Dozens more have partial bans or taxes. While many cities in the United States have plastic bag bans in place, many others likely wouldn’t implement regulations voluntarily, so bans would have to come from a state or a national level. Thus, it may be important for individuals to do their part in bringing reusable bags when shopping if the United States continues to lag behind other countries in banning plastic bags.

Environmental Education

Finland (6.3 gha) in particular is setting an example of nationwide environmental education. It has introduced sustainability as a key component of K-12 education. Sustainable development “must be included in the local curriculum work in the common and optional subjects and in common events, and it must be apparent in the school’s operational culture,” according to the Global Environmental Education Partnership. Italy (4.4 gha) also announced last year that it would be mandating climate change and sustainability as part of the curriculum for all grades. No such requirements exist in the United States or many other countries, though such education could be important for instilling the respect for the environment that is necessary for the future generations of leaders in the fight for a more sustainable world.

 

Originally published in In Our Nature.