comment: >
  
  Europe is not a country.
  I know some Redditors find this concept difficult to grasp, but it's true - Europe is not a country.
  As an actual European (Bulgarian, to be precise), I find it difficult to make generalized statements about other European nations. Hell, I can't even say how materialistic Bulgarians are.
context: I don’t think you understand what materialism is. Or what Europe is for that matter. >
  
  Or how great Europeans are at wasting less. Considering USA has twice or more co2 emissions. >
  
  During my first trip to Europe, what you said, blew me away when I witnessed it firsthand. I was staying with a friend who is rather wealthy and he had a half sized refrigerator when I asked why he didn’t have a full-size one. He replied “how much stuff do I really need to keep cold at any given time“ adding that he almost never threw away food, because nothing ever sat in his refrigerator very long. And eating at what were essentially fast food restaurants and having the drinks served in glasses, the food on plates with silverware and trays. At the end of the meal, you just carried your tray, utensils, and dishware to a little conveyor belt where everything was washed and reused. There was also no such thing as what Americans call trash day. Anything organic was composted and anything recyclable was separated, and sent for recycling. it would be easy to dismiss claims they generate half the CO2 that Americans do as hyperbole, but having witnessed it I have no doubt this is the case. >
  
  Idk a lot about EU laws but I thought that each country mostly had control over it's carbon footprint rather than the EU. Why whould we count them separately? >
  
  To compare with US, better take the EU as a whole. Doesn't make sense to compare Portugal or Estonia to the US.
  And the EU does have ghg emissions regulations. But they are not as strict as those in France, Switzerland (non EU country, but still abides by many EU laws to get access to EU single market), Sweden, etc.