"green" is a serious hot topic in much of the world, except here in NL where it's accepted science. I know I've said it several times before, but I will say it again: when you have 2,000 people per square mile, you change your attitude on a lot of stuff.

"green" for us means mandatory recycling. We get one large grey container. It goes out on Wednesdays. It costs roughly 10 US dollars every time it's picked up. It has a chip on it, so it's counted. You do not get to leave trashbags near the curb. Only what is inside the grey container will get picked up. We have a smaller green container. It's for paper. It's free. Recycling your paper keeps less out of your grey container. It gets picked up once per month, but if you have filled it already, each neighborhood has a container you can walk or bike to that accepts more paper. Glass and aluminum can pick up is once per month. "Klien electronica" (small electric goods- like old hair dryers, old computers, coffee makers etc.) get picked up once a month. "Green" also means avoiding the 12.00 US dollar per gallon gasoline. We love biking, but we love saving money more. We chose to be without a car because quite simply, it's better for our wallet and our health. When it comes to food and product choices at the stores, "green" means buying what is available and cheap. Here veggies are cheaper than meat. Meat starts at 3 and 4 US dollars a pound. The cheapest ground beef isn't ground beef at all! It's "half and half" (half beef, half pork) and costs about 3 US dollars a pound. Meanwhile beans cost so little. I purchased a 3 pound bag of fresh spinach for 33 cents (about 80 US cents). A head of cauliflower is about 80 US cents. A head of broccoli is about the same. Fastfood costs nearly double what it does in America. Eating at nice restaurant for 2 is about 80 to 100 US dollars on up. My last burger/fries and soda combo from Burger King was about 8 US Dollars. Water from the tap is free and we use bike water bottles from home all the time. The Dutch prefer hot tea and coffee because it's so cheap to make at home.

The guy from Amsterdamize is right about talking about "Green". No one wants to hear it anymore. Here in NL, "green" is just part of the everyday world and it's a non-issue. It's not a selling point anymore. It might have been 10 years ago for us here in NL. We are also a highly regulated place. You have to get expensive permits to cut down trees. You can't dump anything into the canals because we all share the same water table. Trash services and recycling are automatic ideas because if we don't recycle heavily, we stand in our own waste. Purchasing new goods is careful and deliberate as most people live in homes under 800 square feet. You can't go out and wildly buy a 50" screen tele. Where would you put it? Electricity is very expensive and picking out lightbulbs is serious business, but just... normal. Different point of view. Green simply doesn't sell now!!