Waste Not Want Not to Go Green

Modern day America has a lot of resources and it uses a lot of resources. But I think that may be a big factor in the majority of Americans having the misconception that things won’t run out. Our water, air, paper and plastic containers. Most of us use these things and take them for granted and that we’ll never run out of these things that are so abundant in daily life.

A Fad that Should Remain a Mindset

Value Limited Resources
I’ve been traveling in Hong Kong and interacted with many people; at the stores, at offices and workplaces. Everyone, and I mean everyone from the cashier at the grocery market, the salesperson at the drug store and office secretaries to managers have a concept of “waste not want not” to help the green environment. With almost 8 million people living in a city smaller than Los Angeles, Hong Kong’ers don’t take resources for granted.

Plastic Bags
TV ads are broadcasted to teach the general public of using reusable non-plastic bags. Each time someone buys something at the store, the cashier asks if you have your own “green” bag before bagging it into a plastic bag. When people pull out their own green-reusable-bag, they say in a very courteous and polite voice “thank you for supporting the environment.” And they take your bag and bag everything inside your bag for you. It’s a part of their daily lives to consciously think about being aware of the environment and most of all everyone helps each other by reminding and thanking each other not to waste.

Size and Both Sides
When I first got to Hong Kong I was without a printer. Then I got one and the store clerk gave me a small stack of paper to use until I was able to get my own ream. I was lazy to go out and buy paper the first week as I didn’t want to carry it back (there’s a lot of walking in HK). So when I printed my daily agendas, I used both sides. Monday on one said and Tuesday on the other. When I was faced with limited paper I got creative and started shrinking the text to fit on one side of the sheet just so I can squeeze the next day on the other side. I thought this was just me. But when I started reading documents from other people they too printed on both sides. When I asked friends in HK to print things for me, they first asked double-sided or one-side? It was like printing on both sides was the default. Just this little habit of everyone printing on both sides by default has potential to save 50% of paper usage. That’s so wonderful! Think about it, I never really got asked that question when I was working at my office in LA.

Here is the top 20 green city/country rankings according to a Reader’s digest article:
1. Stockholm, Sweden
2. Oslo, Norway
3. Munich, Germany
4. Paris, France
5. Frankfurt, Germany
6. Stuttgart, Germany
7. Lyon, France
8. Dusseldorf, Germany
9. Nantes, France
10. Copenhagen, Denmark
11. Geneva, Switzerland
12. Zurich, Switzerland
13. Glasgow, United Kingdom
14. Barcelona, Spain
15. New York, United States
16. Brussels, Belgium
17. Hamburg, Germany
18. Hong Kong, PR China
19. Newcastle, United Kingdom
20. Tokyo, Japan

Start with Mindset
I think one of the ways Americans can get more than just New York on that list is to start with realizing and getting used to the fact that resources are limited in this world. We may see the stacks and stacks of Coke cans and waters on the shelves in the super-markets, but that in no way should make us think that supply is unlimited. When we all start to realize that in a modern world all things still come from something and that something has a limited supply, then we’ll truly realize the value of “waste not want not” to create and live a Greener life.