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The US makes a great effort to ensure sustainability in our nation by promoting the recycling of plastic and glass. By recycling, these objects which would normally be considered trash can be repurposed to help serve our communities for longer periods of time, preventing large amounts of waste.

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Many offices and entertainment facilities contain both a trash and recycling bin in my hometown. However, both bins are sent to a landfill, regardless of the products inside. Although not everywhere, parts of the US are failing to dispose of waste in the ways they advertise it to their community.

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In recent years compost bins have become increasingly common especially on college campuses. This reduces the amount of food waste significantly

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The origin of our highway system. The autobahn is one of the only places on Earth with no legal speed limit for vehicles. I marked this down as a sustainable structure from Germany, as it reduces the need for creating many separate, intertwining highway systems.

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The U.S. Forest Service and National Parks Service work "to improve and protect the forest, to secure favorable watershed conditions, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use of citizens of the United States." In essence, they work to sustainably manage US forests. They also provide a wonderful place to hike and be adventurous.

Source: https://research.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/fs_scandi_report_chapter_1_02_508.pdf

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I think of sustainability as stewarding the environment and improving human development in such a way as to allow humanity, and by proxy earth, to thrive.

In my town, increasing development and construction has destroyed forests and replaced permeable areas (areas where water can soak into the ground) with concrete, asphalt, and roofs. Although every development and construction project must have a drainage plan, the drainage they come up with does not wholly solve the problem of where water goes. It increases the speed of runoff and how fast rivers and streams fill up. This became very apparent in Hurricane Helene. The US is becoming more and more of a concrete and asphalt jungle, leading to more frequent and intense flooding.

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Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act

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Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act

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This act aims to limit the amount of new resources being aims to recycle or reuse as much as possible. It establishes a "Waste Management Hierarchy" that emphasizes preventing waste, reusing, recycling and then environmentally sound disposal. Another interesting part of this act is that it places the responsibility of properly handling trash on the producer and not the consumer.

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The US produces the most Nuclear Energy out of any singular country at 102 GW (23'). While Nuclear Energy is not a renewable resource it is much more sustainable than traditional fossil fuel alternatives.

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I define sustainability to be a way in which a community creates a safe and healthy life for its people. Often in my community, Reidsville, NC, the city water gets contaminated. It has happened a few times in the last year. The impact of this unsustainability makes it so people cannot shower, drink, or use any city water.

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Germany is currently the 3rd largest producer of Lignite. Lignite is considered to be the worst type of coal because of its low energy content, high moisture and ash content, and significant pollutant emissions. The most common mining technique is open-pit mining which is a disastrous the local environment.

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Hyper Consumerism is defined by buying more than what is necessary by a large margin. Some examples of this are fast fashion and fast food. It is most often caused by social pressures. People buy material possession to attempt to elevate their social standings. While this is not a new phenomena it is extremely prevalent in the us where over consumption is becoming the norm.

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In the US, specifically the south, many homes are designed specifically for keeping heat out and cold air in. This is very efficient as it allows for the ac system to have a constant slower load vs. being turned on and off constantly. This is a huge problem in places like Taiwan and China where home insulation isn't as well designed so the ac system has to be designed for short, intense bursts which not only is uncomfortable but not as effcient.

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Misfits Market is a company based in the United States that strives to reduce food waste. They do this by 'rescuing' food items that are consumable, but not up to standard for retailers to put on their shelves. They place these 'misfit' items for sale online. Typically, these commodities would get discarded (wasted), but this company strives to reduce the 40%. To me, this is a form of sustainability, as it is conserving our resources.

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It's a pretty specific example of sustainability, but NC State's use of composting (and bins across campus) was one of the first things that came to mind. Around a year ago, I visited NCSU's Compost Facility located on Lake Wheeler Road, and their goal is to take organic materials (like food, Howling Cow cups, etc.) and turn it into soil to plant trees, flowers, and more. There's more to learn about it here: https://recycling.ncsu.edu/compost-facility/.

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Large forests in Germany like the Black Forest and especially the Hambach forest, have been destroyed in order to clear way for coal mining. Lignite mining has been very prevalent on the old lands of the forest, which is the worst type of coal as it releases extremely high levels of carbon dioxide when burned. Previously spanning 5500 Hectares, today it is only 300 hectares due to the destruction by RWE. The RWE is a German Energy company which is not owned by the government, but receives significant funds from it in order to carry out their destructive projects.

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Consumer Culture in the United States encourages unsustainable practices to be accepted. We waste approximately 40% of the food available for consumption, which is an alarming statistic when you consider that hunger affects one in seven people in the United States.

When you think about going to the grocery store, it is natural for one to expect large, unblemished, bright colored 'fresh' fruits and vegetables but the reality is that when these items are produced by our farmers and ranchers, they will not all be the 'picture-perfect' product that you would think of. Retail stores have a standard for the color, shape, and size of products to be sold, and if this standard is not met, then the product cannot be sold by the producer. This is where a large issue of food waste and unsustainable practices in relation to our food supply can be found.

There are many, many other examples of unsustainable practices that are accepted due to consumer culture, but this is one of the main ones. 40% is a lot, and it will only change if consumer culture does as well.

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Abandoned buildings might not seem like that big of an issue, but when a town has a large amount of abandoned buildings and empty lots, more lots are cleared to build new structures. In Western North Carolina, there are a lot of abandoned buildings along highways and interstates. Instead of refurbishing these buildings or building a new structure on the same lot, they sit abandoned for years while they clear more trees to gain land. This has become more common after Hurricane Helene when buildings that got flooded or destroyed in the storm are abandoned. We have not received enough federal funding to rebuild and rehome small businesses and families who have lost their houses.

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According to my aunt, who lives in Munich, Germany, they do something called a "Plastic Bottle Recycling Deposit".

The way she explained it was that when you buy a drink in a plastic bottle, you are charged for the drink, and then for the plastic. After you have finished drinking it, you can return the plastic bottle (In a Plastic Bottle Recycling Deposit) to get the money you were charged for the plastic back.

The way this is monitored is by having a barcode on each bottle, which is scanned at the deposit. The only way to receive your money back is if the plastic has a barcode on it, which has become the standard for production in Germany. Surrounding countries' companies that produce products consumed in Germany have also added these barcodes to their products so that German consumers will buy them and get their money back.

This is a cool form of sustainability that my aunt shared with me.

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In our community, specifically at NCSU (or any college campus), bikes are an alternative way to travel around campus without producing emissions harmful to our environment. In conclusion, bikes are a great way to sustain our environment by reducing the use of harmful emissions.

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In recent years in my hometown, the land development methods have changed from leaving most trees to clearcutting the entire lot. Although this is more space efficient and easier for construction, it has a devastating effect on local habitat. I don't think clearcutting is sustainable for the ecosystem.

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The United States is the world's largest exporter of weapons and exports around eleven billion dollars' worth of weapons every year. The production of these weapons requires a lot of mining and processing of natural materials. Not only that, when these weapons are eventually used, they often cause extreme ecological damage in their areas of use. Lastly, though not often thought about in sustainability, the production of weapons is a huge money pit. Whenever private arms companies produce weapons, they often inflate their prices and make the repair and maintenance of those weapons only available through professionals through those arms companies. The entire arms industry is unsustainable, and future leaders should look to try to reduce the spending on the industry. (like seriously, one TRILLION dollars is ludicrous!).

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At my hometown university, a reusable cup system (Recup system) has been implemented. You can purchase a cup from a vending machine by paying a deposit of about €1. After that, you can use it to enjoy coffee or other drinks. Once you are done, you simply return the cup to the machine and receive your deposit back. This system, which is very popular in Germany, contributes to a more sustainable world by reducing the use of disposable cups.

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On my recent tour of Germany last summer, I was shocked at the number of wind turbines that I saw on every step of my visit. From looking out of the plane window over Berlin to soaring by fields on the Autobahn, countless wind turbines surrounded me. While wind power is present in my home of the United States, it accounts for a much lower proportion of total energy produced than in Germany.

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There are many opportunities for consumers to return glass bottles they have bought previously filled with milk or lemonade in exchange for a few cents back. This encourages people to contribute to reusing and recycling initiatives within grocery stores.

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Social media culture in the US has rapidly popularized buying clothes from large fast fashion chains such as Shein, H&M, and Zara. People buy poorly made clothes because they are extremely cheap but the pieces often just end up in the landfill, even after being donated.

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This could be argued either way depending upon where you are from in the U.S.

In D.C. however, over 600,000 unique people ride the train everyday. The train is a high density, fast moving form of transportation. Though I don't know the exact figure, train ridership significantly reduces the emissions an individual is responsible for creating. Additionally, for each additional rider there is 1 fewer car on the road. In cities such as D.C. where public transportation is reliable/ mostly reliable it is a very sustainable practice.

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Excessively Large American Cars and Trucks

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Excessively Large American Cars and Trucks

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The large size of many American cars and trucks, usually made by the big American automotive manufacturers, is a problem in many ways. First, the larger size damages roads more, increasing the need for repaving. Second, producing larger vehicles mean using more materials per car compared to smaller models. Third, the higher weight of these vehicles increases the force needed to move them, making them less fuel efficient. Fourth, the higher weight of these vehicles increases the danger for others in collisions.

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Transportation in the US is almost entirely based on cars. In suburban environments, a car is almost always required for one to leave the area or travel to local businesses. Cities often have sidewalks, bus systems, and bike lanes for transportation, but American infrastructure has clearly been designed around the car. With cars utilizing unsustainable fuels, the system is not designed for the long term, but instead burning gas for faster commutes.

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"Citkar" and e-bikes for last-mile deliveries

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"Citkar" and e-bikes for last-mile deliveries

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For a substantial portion of cities across the globe, navigating traffic can be quite challenging for environmental and energy sustainability. Often, citizens and especially delivery vehicles will spend considerable time waiting at red lights, for pedestrians to cross, and general delays, which result in an unnecessarily large emission of CO2. In an effort to combat this environmental degradation, companies such as Citkar have started utilizing e-bikes for urban delivery. While traditional e-bikes have been unsuited for prolonged use, recent developments in motor strength, weather protection, and carry capacity (new models can carry 235 kg!) have allowed these bikes to surge in utility. By comparison, the e-bikes designed by Citkar produce around 0.03 metric tons of CO2 per 10,000 kilometers traveled, while traditional cars produce about 3 metric tons of CO2 per 10,000 kilometers traveled.

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In today's technological world, large carbon emissions can often be unavoidable to keep a variety of aspects running smoothly. While we should focus on developing new technology for a reduction in carbon emissions, we can also start combating what we produce right now. To this end, carbon capture projects have emerged across the United States, following the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), that trap carbon both in the atmosphere and at emissions sites. The resulting trapped carbon is stored in high-capacity facilities such as depleted oil fields and natural saline reservoirs. While chemicals and fans are often used for the capture of carbon in the air, innovations such as those in clothing are currently being developed!

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Though plastic consumption is spread across the entire globe, the United States exemplifies the unsustainable use of single-use plastics. Implemented in everything from packaging to cutlery and food, single-use plastics can not only leech harmful chemicals into consumables but also must be quickly disposed of, where, due to their inability to effectively decompose, they accumulate in landfills. As a result, besides continuing to disrupt our bodies' natural functions with foreign contaminants, single-use plastics disturb environmental stability with their presence inhibiting effective fauna and flora development and interaction.

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Ignorance towards the severe reality of climate change. 

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Ignorance towards the severe reality of climate change. 

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Climate change and its consequences will affect every part of daily life for all Americans, and a lack of awareness and care about this topic will have disastrous results for the future.

Food: Overworked and exhausted farmers will struggle to meet the demands of a large American population under the duress of high-impact climate change. Our current experiences of hurricanes and flooding on the coast, droughts in the west, and extremely high temperatures are merely a glimpse of what is to come. The high risks involved with heat-related health issues, impacting both livestock and farmers, will either raise prices to an unsustainable level or assist in collapsing the agricultural economy altogether.

Water: Snowpacks are melting, damaging the environment while simultaneously losing their value as a reliable source of water. Permafrost is melting as well, leading to the destruction of plant life in the Arctic tundra and causing flooding in northern America.

The Environment: The very lands that citizens of America live on are being destroyed by climate change. Sea levels are rising, coastal ecosystems are being disrupted, and ripple effects will continue to impact all living things on the planet.

Americans are beginning to experience the effects of climate change in real time as negative impacts finally begin to reach their daily life. Influence from the government, alongside major oil corporations, helps already willfully ignorant people to continue to turn a blind eye to the changes happening all around them.

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About 57% of the electricity used in Germany comes from renewable energy sources especially wind turbines and solar power. That is possible because a lot of people decide to install rooftop solar-panels to reduce their costs for electricity in the long term

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During our stay I saw a lot of places where single use plastics are used but not necessary. In my opinion it is fine for takeaway food and drinks although there are options for reusable ones but for in-house there should always be reusable dishes.

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In my community of Wooster Ohio, this building was our old town jail. Instead of knocking it down, it has become a common theme to retrofit or renovate old buildings so they can still have use and not have the debris just sent to a landfill.

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The US has 63 national parks which protect diverse landscapes of different kinds, like mountains and forrest and preserve wildlife.

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German buildings often consist of materials that need high amounts of energy in production. Examples are: Bricks, concrete and mineral-oil based insulation. It is of course the cheapest way but not the sustainable way

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Germany's decision to abandon nuclear energy.

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Germany's decision to abandon nuclear energy.

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An example of unsustainability I know in German society is its strong anti-nuclear sentiment, whose repercussions have led to a reliance on energy from fossil fuels, either foreign or domestic. Germany shut down all of its reactors, thus increasing its dependence on oil and gas imported from Russia. This is damaging to the environment, and also harmful from a geopolitical perspective.

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I feel like the prevalence of relatively cheap, low-quality electronics, leads to a significant amount of e-waste to be produced - I have multiple Chromebooks I can't or no longer use due to them breaking quickly. Also, this article: Cleaning Up Electronic Waste (E-Waste) | US EPA

reminded me that I learned in my APES class that there is sometimes illegal exportation of electronic waste to other countries where it is processed and broken down by workers in dangerous conditions.

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In Germany some farmers directly sell what they produce. No supermarced is needed. In this way people from nearby can buy the products. This supports the farmer, the food has good quality, people know where the food comes from and it reduces emissions for transport.

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Since 2007, Apple has released a new generations of their iPhone every year, including 2-4 variations some years. With the prevalence of new technology each year marketed as a necessary upgrade, many people upgrade and replace excellent quality devices for a newer model without considering the waste that these still-functioning but replaceable devices leave in our society. The push for even only three or four year old models to be almost obsolete is encouraged by Apple as they design software upgrades and limit their most recent software to the newest generations of tech. While perhaps a good business model to ensure continued purchase of Apple products, this produces a great amount of tech waste that then enters the local environment.

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I heard from some students, American cities try to become more green. They do that by planting trees and integrating green spaces. This enhance the quality of life because people need a connection to nature for their well being. Also it reduces the cities temperature because of more shadows and it filters the air.

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In Germany there are still many things packed with plastics.The amount has been drastically decreasing but there's still room for improvement.

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Many eco-friendly transportation options, both public and private, are becoming increasingly accessible. This can be seen in the rise of hybrid and electric vehicles as well as city buses (GoRaleigh/GoTriangle in particular!)

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In the US every city is still completely car dominated. Cars take up lots of space, they are loud and dirty. Of course it is not easy to change but the amount of cars can be decreased heavily.

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More car accidents

More people dying

More CO2 emissions

More noise

More fuel consumption

More fear for slower drivers

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In the vast majority of American cities, public transportation is vastly overshadowed by personal travel in fossil fuel-powered cars. This leads to higher carbon emissions per capita and an unsustainable reliance on nonrenewable resources with far-reaching negative impacts on the environment.

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In many US communities, citizens and local governments work to create green spaces. These areas not only provide habitats for local wildlife, heat/CO₂ sinks, and water filtration systems, but help to combat urban runoff and give recreational space for members of the community.

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When I think of the phrase "a job half-done is as good as none," I think of the North Carolina Amtrak. As a frequent user of the Piedmont service (trains running back and forth between Raleigh and Charlotte four times a day in both directions), I adore passenger rail. It's accessible, convenient, and sustainable, not to mention extremely comfortable. The amenities provided are far greater than that of a car, and although the journey typically takes 15-20 minutes longer it comes with far less stress of highway driving and is rather scenic in the fall. However, it's also barely advertised as a feasible way to travel-- most people default to driving, even though gas prices end up working out to the same cost as a ticket for most Piedmont journeys. It's also not as good as it could be, due to lack of investment in the infrastructure-- if the General Assembly allocated funds to improving tracks and engines (such as the Acela engine being implemented newly on the Northeastern Corridor beyond D.C.) it is fully possible to reduce the travel time from three hours to less than two. The Amtrak has so much potential, but because of our entrenched ways of personal cars and highway movement and a general unwillingness to invest resources into bettering transportation, it reamins in my eyes an example of American unsustainability and the "job half-done".

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I define sustainability as a process or action that can help save time, resources, and/or energy. One common example I found to be is biking. Using this form of transportation, air pollution is reduced.

I found that the primary means of transportation in Germany are buses. While it doesn't promote environmental health as much as biking does, it does save carbon emissions per passenger.

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In most states and cities in the US public transportation is very difficult to find especially for longer distances. So using a car is the most common form of transportation. Where I live there is no public buses for a 3+ mile radius near me.

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The US Parks system is one of the most expansive in the world, covering all sorts of national wonders from Crater Lake to the Everglades in Florida. Preserving these unique spaces supports North American biodiversity and environmental health for our current and future generations

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Many US cities are infamous for their unchecked urban/suburban sprawl, and the city of Raleigh is currently suffering the consequences of this kind of growth. Unplanned, car-centric urban sprawl releases massive amounts of greenhouse gases from transportation inefficiencies.

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One place I've seen sustainability is in the dining hall take out coffee cups. While I was hesitant to take one at first, I noticed that the lids were an eco-friendly plastic instead of just regular plastic. I think it's still important to limit the use of plastic no matter what, but having better plastic alternatives for something people already use is a step in the right direction.

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In Charlotte NC there is always construction. Despite not being an newer city all of the buildings are almost brand new. The city often destroys old buildings and puts new ones in its place. While not all old buildings are going to be safe to use, the amount of destruction and construction is bad for the environment.