Four years ago, when I came to high school in the United States as an exchange student from South Korea, I was fifteen and could not compose a sentence of English.
But the first thing that struck me was the use of paper towels. People used these white rolls of disposable paper for everything. There was always a roll of paper towels sitting in the back of my class, and it was gone by end of the day.
Another thing that shocked me was the huge trash cans I saw every 50 feet. I wondered why they had to be so big until I saw kids throwing empty soda bottles inside, along with other trash.
No one recycled.
All the kids casually threw away their things - as if that was the way they dealt with the trash they had been generating for their whole lives.
I felt a little bit deceived inside.
At my Korean school, everyone in the class brought a piece of an old T-shirt from home for everyday cleaning. I would wipe my desk and chair with it, then wash it and hang it to dry. Then I would use it whenever I spilled something and wash it again.
There was a little trash can and a huge recycling bin at the back of my classroom. No one dared to put paper, plastics or cans in the trash can.
Every Saturday, the apartment complex I lived in had a recycling day, when all the residents could throw away their papers, plastics and waste that had accumulated during the week so that recycling company could take them.
I doubted whether all the efforts Koreans had been making to preserve the environment meant anything when there was so much excessive use and waste of resources on the other side of the world.
Since then, I have witnessed much more in the United States that would be such a shock to the people back home: paper plates and plastic silverware everywhere, water running all the time, lights on constantly, ice-cold air conditioning, excessive use of cars and no separation between dry and wet trash.
And that’s just the start.
Not many Americans seem to care about it or even notice that it was a problem. There were small environmentally-conscious movements here and there, but they did not get much attention.
Ironically enough, the longer I stayed in the U.S., the more I became accustomed to this new lifestyle. Before I realized it, I was throwing soda bottles into the trash can without any hesitation.
However, all of a sudden, I sensed a difference. There were recycling cans everywhere. Commercials screamed that their companies supported environmental causes. Magazines and newspapers constantly wrote about how serious the earth’s environmental problems had gotten and what people could do about it. Eating organic fruits and vegetables became very fashionable.
All of a sudden, a surge of green seemed to hit people’s minds.
This fall, when I returned to the U.S., I was confused by the stares I got every time I threw a soda bottle into the trash can.
Now I am afraid.
It is a great thing that environmental awareness has grown so much lately, but how long will it last? From an outsider’s point of view, the whole thing looks like the sort of trend that becomes fashionable one day but disappears just as fast.
There is a limit to the amount newspapers and magazines can run special programs on the environment without talking about the same things over and over. Right now, it seems like competition-driven companies are promoting “green” products in order to sell their products regardless of what their real intentions are.
What will happen once people’s minds are no longer focused on saving the earth or when marketing on the environment does not seem profitable anymore?
Recycling bins will still be lying around, but what is the use of them if people no longer take their own time to sort their trash? Only time will tell, but I still cannot walk away from the thought that one day, I will again see what shocked me so much four years ago.
My hope is that this green movement becomes stronger; that the little everyday practices of conserving the environment become habitual for Americans.
Koreans are so accustomed to thinking about the environment all the time, but it is not because we cannot afford to buy paper towels or to run the air conditioner all year long. The notion that where we live will turn in to a wasteland was established in our minds so solidly that whatever we do, we unconsciously think of the environment.
We need a new generation of Americans to be like that, to grow up to be eco-friendly without voices from the media telling them to recycle.
By the time we have kids, we probably won’t hear so much about the green movement, but is that such a bad thing? Environmentalism is more than a movement. It’s a way of thinking. What we need is a concerted effort from everyone to not forget that, no matter what trends pass us by, the earth will still be with us.
Juae Son is a staff columnist for The DSJ. Her views do not necessarily represent those of the entire staff.
This piece originally appeared in the November 2008 issue issue of The DoG Street Journal.