Wasted

Pointing to the water bottle on my desk my boss asked me the other day:
"Are you using the same one every day?"
"Yes," I said. "Why? Is that so weird?"
" I bet you take your own bag for shopping too," he added with a hint of sarcasm.
" I tend to," I replied.
" You're so green..."

Honestly, I thought it's just rational. At least in Europe.
Here, I fight a daily battle with every CVS and grocery store accountant in the neighbourhood NOT to pack my one bottle of milk and one box of cereal or one granola bar into a DOUBLE bag. Each and every day I see an honest disappointment in their eyes when I dare to interrupt their daily routine of double-bagging with my obnoxious "No bags please." I feel their evil eyes in the middle of myback when I check out. What an outrageous refusal of taking the billionth plastic bag that I don't need at all!
Despite all our desperate efforts, in less than a week we accumulated about a hundred plastic bags in the apartment, that takes up an entire cupboard in our miniature kitchen. A mission impossible to use them up all.
Fortunately, we have more forward looking grocery stores in the 'hood.
Whole Foods (the local buy a-super-organic-apple-tasting-apple-for-3-dollars-bio store) now came up with a brand new anti-bag policy. They give you 10 cents off if you DON'T ask for a bag (i.e. you have to REFUSE it, otherwise they still pack things automatically). Plus, they proudly remind you at the counter that THEY don't double bag stuff. Green Heavens! What an achievement in this country.
But the bagomania is just one side of the coin. The other fixation is here is paper cups.
You literally have to hunt down places in NY where you get a decent cup of anything served in a mug, coffee- or teacup. Even if you consume it on the premises. Although Starbucks operates on a predominantly take-away concept, if you really want to sit down and drink your grande skim macchiato with five barristas shouting in your ears paired with the obnoxiously loud iTune of the day, at a table that is the most ergonomically unfit for sitting in the world, you are welcome. But mugs are a big no-no again almost everywhere.
With the rising PR importance of Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns, Starbucks has made some vain efforts to reduce the amount of paper waste it is responsible for. Lately, it's "Green Team" published a memo that said:
"If only 50 customers a day in every store were to use reusable mugs, Starbucks would save 150,000 disposable paper cups daily. This equals 1.7 million pounds of paper and 150,000 trees a year."
Now reverse the logic and think about how many trees people fail to save by holding on to their emblematic white and green cups that make the otherwise mediocre-quality coffee so special.
These two everyday examples are just few of the many.
The US is generating more and more municipal solid waste per capita every year despite all its recycling efforts. Now its global waste contribution is about 250 million tons a year, which makes it the trash-king of industrialized countries.

The problem is, that the simple act of accumulating stuff is too inherently vowen into American culture. Be it useless kitchen appliances, workout machines or solid waste. The scarcity of resources is virtually absent in their way of thinking. From the Westward expansion to today's outsourcing rush, there has always been a way to supply the excessive demand of American consumerism. In fact, that's exactly what keeps its economy running despite their flimsy dollar. It is painful to admit, but this excessive consumerism is the fundamental element of the American economic machinery, recycling, reusing and not-consuming are just not part of the picture.
Remember what was Bush's message to the American people after 9/11?
He sent them shopping. And so they did. Bringing a shattered economy back to full speed.