26 April 2009 — Jay and I are just returning from a trip in Europe and I was extremely impressed with how green
this country is. Not only is it literally green from all the forests they grow all over the place including lush abundant green trees and bushes along the highways, but their environmental policies are so far ahead of our own here in North America. Solar panels and windmills are everywhere. Countless individual dwellings have their own solar panels and generate their own electricity, thanks to a governmental policy that will pay back homeowners more money for the electricity they give back to the grid than what they have to pay from the grid to get electricity, so it is easy for Germans to reduce their electricity bills down to zero. 
I was already very impressed with the green German way of life which is so ingrained in the mainstream culture, but when a cashier at a local convenient store told us we could bring back for 25 cents the plastic water bottles we had bought (as you can see, we are far from perfect on the plastic consumption front) — we were flabbergasted. Way to go! I wish we could do the same here!
– Chantal