The Red, White and Blue: Not so Green

By Lori Huskey

When I landed in Holland ten years ago, I found myself in the same situation countless times. As I scarfed down frites with mayonnaise, my eyes darted around in search for napkins. Whether in a restaurant or the Dutch home in which I lived for a year, I couldn’t easily locate anything other than my clothes to wipe my hands with. In other countries years later, I had the same napkin dilemma while eating.

But is it really a problem?

As Americans, we come from a land of far too many paper products. We have tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, moist hand wipes, dampened face towelletes, baby wipes, baby wipes for grown-ups and about thirty-seven other useless variations of paper--or trees.

In Holland, the family I lived with used nothing or cloth napkins while eating. I have since banned paper napkins from my house and use only cloth napkins and clean up kitchen spills with used rags or t-shirts rather than paper towels.

In Thailand, food vendors on the street happily offered me a sheet of newspaper for my greasy hands and in Korea I was given toilet paper. After living with a Korean family for a month I can tell you this: not only do they use toilet paper as their signature omnipotent paper, they are also so environmentally conscious it puts my ‘progressive’ Portland, Ore. to shame.

South Korea has one of the most robust economies in the world. A large portion of its economic success depends on the tea, rice and barley grown in the south—via 100% organic farming. This province, Jeollanam-do is pioneering pesticide-free, organic farming with overwhelmingly positive results. In fact, Jeollanam-do is known for its “eco-friendly family villages.”

If you stay in South Korea for more than a day you will become immediately immersed in its environmentally conscious culture. Like the family I lived with in Holland (a country with bicycle commuters outnumbering motorists) Koreans have one car per family. A third of Koreans are Buddhist and the Buddhist principals play into their everyday life, Buddhist or not. That is, Koreans don’t waste food.

When I stayed at a Buddhist temple for three days we were instructed to eat everything on our plates and we couldn’t leave the table until we did. Although the Korean portions of rice, kimchi (pickled cabbage), and squid are the size of Texas, they clear their plates completely. This is also done out of respect to their ancestors who toiled in rice fields and risked going hungry.

I doubt that South Korea pompously prides itself as one of the greenest countries, but somehow I think it is. Every environmentally conscious move the country makes seems effortless. Small homes, solar power and modest consumption that make Costco look like Satan, South Korea is continuously going green. The city busses use CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) like some bus systems in the U.S., and most Korean stores discourage the use of plastic bags.
In the U.S. we’re slowly catching on. San Francisco is now the first city to ban plastic bags. But for now, other countries may have an edge on being eco.

Help yourself go green:

Using your own grocery bags is a groovy idea. To order green-friendly tote bags visit The Green Loop. You can check out various styles and prints with prices ranging from $6-41. Some of the bags are polypropylene, pesticide free and the proceeds benefit environmental programming for children. Several of the bags can even be planted when they wear out.

And if you can’t make it to South Korea you can at least re-use one of their rice sacks as a snappy bag: Gecko Traders, $27.