Greening Up Their Act

My friends and I often joke about how we have traveled just about as far as possible from home just to find ourselves in a culture very similar to our own. Besides some new learned vocabulary and some disputes over proper pronunciations and terminologies, there is virtually no language barrier. Not to mention the abundance of American music, entertainment and brands. European influences can obviously be seen in some ways of life and architecture, but when walking around Melbourne I frequently find myself feeling as though I am just in a US city I’ve never been to before.

There is one area, I have found, that Australia differs from the US so greatly and that is in overall environmental consciousness. Melbourne is the cleanest city I’ve ever been in with the least amount of trashcans. In the US we are told not to refill water bottles because it causes cancer. In Australia there are water bottle refilling stations virtually anywhere in public you venture. Every electrical outlet has a switch above it so you can easily turn off the outlet whenever you’re not using the appliance. Every single time I leave my dormitory room all the hall lights and bathroom lights are turned off. In the bathroom stalls themselves the individual stall light does not turn on until you lock the door. In every shower there is a timer and four-minute showers are strongly requested. Every bathroom you are in has two flushing options: full or half the water amount for solid and liquid waste. And I dare you to even try to find a bathroom that offers paper towels. Not only does everyone bring their own canvas bags to stores and supermarkets, but also, if the customers choose not to, more often than not they will be charged around twenty cents for every plastic bag they are given for their merchandise. Good luck finding plastic utensils, cups or paper plates while you’re at the supermarket, too. Any free meal served on campus everyone shows up with their own plates and silverware from their rooms.

Perhaps factors such as much of Australia suffering from a terrible drought a couple years ago where there was a strong fear of Australia’s water supply actually running out, but every where you go there are little signs informing you how much water you’re wasting by leaving the tap running or how much water they’re saving with the different flushing options. I have found myself turning the water off when I’m brushing my teeth or washing my face when I would’ve left the tap running in the past. I have cut my shower time down to ten minutes (yes, embarrassingly enough, this is huge progress). I make sure to turn off the switches on the electrical outlets in my room and turn off my lights when I don’t need them. I do miss paper towels, but I find Australia’s huge effort to reduce their carbon footprint more than admirable and am shocked that the US seems light-years behind and almost ignorant in our laughable attempts at being “green.” After living in Australia a month I’m ashamed by how wasteful I’ve been in the past and am appalled that the easy environmental changes the US could be making aren’t even considered. Making small progress is too easy, can begin individually, and it’s about time the US steps up and greens up our act like Australia.