Stuck in the 1950s — Trash everywhere

Okay, I know I wasn’t alive in the 1950s but in my head I have formed an idea of what America was like in that era. I admit that my opinions are mostly based on information garnered from years of watching bad television, but the reality of the 1950s has nothing to do with this blog post.

In my mind, America in the 1950s was a land of happy go lucky times. In my version of the 50s people drove huge gas guzzling cars, lived in the suburbs and the idea that disposable products were the best thing ever, was just catching on. I imagine that at that time, corporations were blissfully dumping huge amounts of pollutants into local rivers and lakes and no one thought that was a bad idea. I think that after mom and dad took the kids to McDonald’s for lunch everyone happily tossed their wrappers out the window of their land yacht while cruising down the highway at 5 miles per gallon. I’m not sure if they had styrofoam in the 50s, but if they did, they were definitely throwing the non-biodegradable trays from their speeding global warming machine.

It wasn’t their fault though, there just wasn’t any environmental awareness at that point. No one had educated people that dumping their used motor oil down the storm drain was a bad idea, and certainly no one had volunteered to spend their Saturday painting the no dumping and fish symbols on all of the drains.

Fast forward a few decades in America and if you don’t recycle, you are very close to being a criminal. If you throw something out of the window of your sensible hybrid car you could face a $1,000 fine and maybe even go to jail. America’s consciousness has shifted and I’m pretty sure we would all agree that it is for the better. During my first few weeks on Okinawa, one of the major cultural differences that stood out was the amount of trash. There is trash everywhere. On the sides of roads, in front of stores and houses, and even in the ocean.

The green mentality that is so prevalent in American has not yet made it across the Pacific. In Okinawa, it is routine to see someone roll down their window and drop their trash as they are driving. The funny thing is that they do have litter laws here, they just aren’t enforced. Here, the environment just isn’t a priority. There are no emission standards. The majority of vehicles on the roads belch large black clouds of noxious fumes ever time they accelerate. It is so bad, that it has become habit to roll up my windows when stopped at an intersection in anticipation of the carbon monoxide plume that will emanate from the vehicles next to me as soon as the light turns green.

I can’t wait to return to the land of tree hugging hippies and smog checks.