How did Germans develop their environmentally friendly habits?

Many people praise Germany for its beautiful environment and fresh air. After living in Germany for a long time, I slowly realized that all this comes from the long-term environmental awareness. When it comes to environmental protection, many Chinese people may think that it is a national matter and has little to do with individuals. In Germany, environmental protection is closely related to your life and is a "big thing" that you must deal with every day. First, you must sort your daily household waste. At least four to five trash cans should be prepared at home to contain ecological waste (vegetable leaves, fruit peels, etc.), chemical waste (waste batteries, etc.), recyclable waste (glass bottles, waste paper, etc.) and general waste (divided into combustible and Non-flammable two categories). This is just a rough classification. When you arrive at the public trash can, in addition to sorting the garbage into buckets of different colors, you also need to further throw the glass bottles of different colors into the corresponding special buckets for glass bottles. It seems that just taking out the garbage every day is tiring for Germans. However, the amount of garbage money saved in this way is beyond your imagination! The annual garbage fee for five unsorted trash cans is 200,000 marks, but after sorting, it only costs less than 50,000 marks. This money not only saves residents’ pockets, but also saves a large amount of government expenditure. Therefore, garbage classification is the most basic environmental awareness of Germans. It is often seen on the street that both men and women, and even old people walking hobblingly, will carefully break a bag of bottles of different colors one by one and throw them into a special glass bucket. Unfortunately, in China, garbage is not sorted. All stolen goods and leftovers, whether chemical, biological, flammable or non-flammable, were thrown into the garbage chute, along with soup and water. It is said that a German woman living in China brings her used batteries back to Germany for disposal every year because she cannot find a place specifically for recycling waste batteries. Why can't we sort the garbage? Spending a little personal time every day will bring huge benefits in saving expenses and protecting the environment. Why not? It is very expensive for governments of all countries to deal with garbage, and garbage is unavoidable in life. Germany has a population of 80 million and produces 30 million tons of garbage every year. To describe it in German terms: put this garbage on a train. The head of the train is in Germany and the rear of the train has reached Central Africa. And how much garbage should China produce every year with a population of 1.3 billion? If garbage was also loaded on a train, the length of the train might be enough to circle the earth. I think Germany has done a good job in reducing waste sources. People often see advertisements like this: Please use cloth bags instead of paper or plastic bags for shopping! Please go directly to the bakery and buy bread instead of the bread in the bag! When you have a cold, use a handkerchief instead of a tissue to wipe your nose, etc. The latest detergent products produced by Henkel in Germany, even the packaging bag is part of the product, which can be used after being dissolved. Although it is impossible for all of these ideas to be realized in China or even Germany, this awareness of environmental protection is worth learning from. Furthermore, Germany is a country with a large automobile industry. Every family has a private car, and it is common for the whole family to drive on weekends for vacation. But I often find that there are large parking lots on the edge of some small towns with pleasant scenery. There are slogans like this around: In order to protect the environment, please park here and take public transportation to visit the city. In such a parking lot, there will be many cars parked on weekends, and you can even see many luxury cars and sports cars. I think this also reflects the German people's environmental awareness. When driving in Germany, the more people in the car, the less bridge tolls you pay. The same goes for taking the train, a weekend ticket for a group of 5 people is much cheaper than a direct ticket for one person. Many natural lakes in Germany prohibit motorized boats, and no tourists throw waste into the water. The lake water is always clear. I went to the Berchtesgaden area in southern Germany, and the water in the K?nigssee there actually reached drinking water standards! What people pay for nature will be what they get in return. China has 1.3 billion people and its economy is developing rapidly. After several generations of hard work, our economy will surely catch up with developed countries. But what about our living environment? I think that no matter you are a rich man who owns a multinational company in the future, or you are an ordinary person living an ordinary life, the environment is equal to everyone.

If you have to deal with wind and sand, acid rain, exhaust gas all day long, you can't even go for a walk after eating, and live with thousands of tons of garbage every day, can you endure such a day? What mankind will face in the future is competition between the environment and resources. Everyone must protect the environment around them! If a friend asks me, what do you most want to bring home from Germany? I will definitely tell him that it is the environmental awareness of the Germans.