The USA wastes resources like hardly any other country on earth. And there is no end in sight. Why this is so – and why Germany is better than many people when it comes to climate protection.
“You need a bag?” – this friendly question about a bag is not only standard at supermarket checkouts in the USA. It’s also an extremely euphemistic singular. Because “a bag” is rarely just “a bag”. In the liberal capital Washington, this is particularly noticeable in those stores that proudly advertise their sustainability and their organic segment.
Whether at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods or Yes! – the cashiers immediately grab two huge brown recycled paper bags and routinely stack them on top of each other so that nothing tears. “A bag” – that’s always two bags. And “two bags” are actually four. For free. Anyone who has to carry their purchases home in the rain will appreciate the stability they have gained in this way. Nothing will slip through. But it doesn’t rain that often here.
Anyone who has ever looked at the energy balance of such disposable paper bags will also know that twice as much material is required in their manufacture so that paper bags have the same tear resistance as plastic bags. In terms of resource consumption, paper bags do even worse than single-use plastic bags. The Washingtonians, who here in the US capital are very concerned about themselves and their supposedly sustainable lifestyle, would have to re-examine their moral behavior if they answered yes to the question of “a bag” with a good ecological conscience.
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Land of consumption and garbage
While negotiations are currently being held in Glasgow to save the planet, one thing quickly becomes apparent in the US capital: Germans and Europeans are happy to make an effort. But climate protection will not work without the USA.
Despite all the anecdotal evidence of the supermarket example: It is no coincidence that the United States, a country with 330 million inhabitants, is not only one of the absolute front-runners when you compare the per capita emissions of CO2 with other countries. Americans emit about twice as much as Germans. In addition to Canada, the USA is also the country on earth that causes the most garbage per capita. And that doesn’t seem to change much in 2021 either.
While in Germany every citizen produces the equivalent of 1.72 kilograms of garbage per day, in the USA it is 2.24 kilograms. The average per world citizen, on the other hand, is only 0.79 kilograms per day. The amount of garbage a country generates per day and citizen says a lot about consumer behavior and production processes, says a lot about energy and thus, at least with the current electricity mix, also about its CO2 emissions. Because what is thrown away once had to be produced with a lot of energy.
Right next to the organic supermarket on Washington’s 14th Street is one of the city’s many cafes. There are no real cups, spoons or glasses, also because of the pandemic. But even if you want to linger inside, you get a beautiful, black and gold decorated mug, but still a disposable product. Some visitors even only come because they think these cups are so special and take them for a walk – for themselves and their followers on Instagram. If you buy a single cookie, you get a chic paper bag that is big enough to hold 15 cookies. Plus a pile of brown napkins. Organic.
In a study published in March of this year on garbage in Washington, paper actually accounts for the largest proportion of waste generated, at 31 percent. Around 355,000 tons of paper waste are generated here every year. Followed by discarded food with 157,000 tons and plastic with 144,000 tons. The paper industry is the third most energy-intensive sector in the USA.
And it gets worse. A projection calculates: From around 1.3 million tons of waste in 2013, the amount is not expected to decrease by 2038, but rather to rise to more than 1.8 million tons. While the countries of the world, including the USA, are struggling to reduce CO2 and methane gas, consumption in the USA, including its waste products, seems to be fully geared towards an unrestricted use of resources.
Those who visit the numerous burger shops in Washington or drive to the neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland have not been given a plastic straw for their milkshake there for some time. What looks like a small step forward, however, simply upsets many. A guest in line complains about “woke leftists” who believe they can save the world with cardboard straws. “The thing got soaked after a few minutes. That’s why I always have to take three with me now,” he complains, gets into his BMW and speeds away.
Nothing will work without a car in the future either
You can survive in Washington without a car. There is a metro, there are city bikes. But if you want to be more or less mobile, for example to go to a more affordable supermarket, a furniture store or a mall, you naturally need a car, as is almost everywhere in the USA. The streets around the capital are congested at all times of the day and night. Instead of having fewer cars, more highways are being built. Those who go on vacation with the family like to maneuver their car onto a car train to travel to Tampa, Florida or as far as California. Without a car, be it electric or not, little will work in the USA in the future either. How can such a huge country be continuously developed by trains and local transport?
From the leaf blower to the floodlight system of a small sports field in downtown Washington, a lot is still going on with the good old Diesel. The days are now shorter and from 5 p.m. onwards, numerous small generators are rattling around the field. A huge, brightly shining headlight on each diesel generator. That still seems to be cheaper than a permanent connection to the local power grid. At least nobody cares. But that would not help the environment much either, because the electricity mix in the USA still consists of more than 60 percent fossil fuels (natural gas, coal and mineral oil). While renewable energies in Germany now account for more than 50 percent of the electricity volume, the proportion in the USA is only 20 percent.
When it comes to primary energy consumption, it becomes even clearer how much still needs to be done in this country in order to achieve the climate goals of zero emissions in the end. In the USA, the share of coal at 10 percent is lower than in Germany at 16 percent. But so far, renewable energies still only provide around 12 percent of the primary energy requirement. The main source in 2020 was natural gas with 34 percent and mineral oil with 35 percent. How quickly will that change? Especially since a man might move into the White House again in 2024 who only recently said in an interview as follows: Wind energy is far too expensive and the wind turbines would kill all the birds, railed Donald Trump on Fox News. The turbines also come from China and Germany.
When will the turning point come?
Many US states such as California have long since set plans and goals for expanding renewables and are pursuing them. But especially in Republican-ruled states, there aren’t even targets.
Not even in the coal state of West Virginia, from which the most unruly Senator of the Democrats, Joe Manchin, comes from. The man who became a multimillionaire thanks to his own coal company has been attacked violently here in Washington for weeks. Sometimes environmental activists row up to his yacht on the Potomac River to confront him as to why he is blocking environmental and social laws in the Senate.
Sometimes it is young students from “Hunger Strike 4 Climate Justice” who have gone on hunger strike for the climate. Manchin could not drive out of the parking garage in his Maserati because the activists blocked the exit.
But as great as the consumption of resources and the emission of greenhouse gases are in the USA, the climate movement is so small and insignificant in this country. There is no American Greta here and Fridays for Future USA is more like a scattered bunch than a youth movement.
Hardly anyone here notices anything of the minute-long climate protests in the government district on the National Mall. The bigger upset here remains the gasoline prices. In the US, a liter of gasoline currently costs around one dollar. That is still half as expensive as in Germany.
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