A Green England

In the United States, many citizens are trying to become greener by recycling more, using less water, and much more. I have always thought our nation has been making a lot of improvement towards a greener lifestyle, but after seeing how green England is, I realized how far behind we are from a lot of the world. England is green everywhere you turn.

            

When we first got to our hotels in England, my roommates and I were quite confused for a long time with how the electricity worked. We could not figure out how to turn on the lights. This is because there is a small keyhole for the room key where you had to put your key in to activate the electricity flow in our room. So to turn on the lights or charge our phone, we had to constantly have a room key in the wall. A small switch next to each outlet also controlled the electricity. To allow the electricity flow, you had to turn the switch on and you were to turn it off when you were not using it.

           

Outside of the hotel room, England was also very green on the streets. On every street corner there were multiple different recycling bins; one for paper, plastics, glass, etc. On many street corners, there weren’t even garbage cans, just recycling bins! It was more common to find a recycling bin than a garbage can. It was also very rare to see many cars driving. Our tour guide explained to us that in England, citizens have to pay a very expensive toll to drive into many cities for work. This toll makes citizens not drive and take the tube instead, which helps stop air pollution.

            

England was also very green in its bathrooms. In almost every bathroom that I went to in England, there were two different buttons to flush. One used less water and it was supposed to be used for when the flush doesn’t need to be heavy. Of course, the other button was to be used very rarely when you needed the heavier flush. Also in the bathrooms, there were never paper towels. I never was in one bathroom with paper towel, only ever a hand dryer. This was to reduce the amount of paper wasted.

            

Over all, seeing how green England was made me realize how much more effort the United States needs to still put in to make a more green environment. There is a constant flow of electricity through my house at all times; there are no switches on the outlets. There are not many recycling bins on the streets of public places. There is no toll to drive into the city. There are no two different buttons to flush. And there are always paper towels in public bathrooms. Even if there are hand driers, there are usually paper towels as well. I hope that one day the United States can live up to the green example that England has shown us.