No grocery bags. No phone books. An eco-tax on milk cartons. Refrigerators the size of microwaves and 20-cent electricity.

How’s that for a lifestyle to “go green” and waste less?   

This past summer, a family affair took us to Scandinavia.  As spectators in a progressive land, we witnessed many eco-mandates that are shaping the world’s environmental business. 

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In many ways, America’s efforts are trash compared to Europe’s savvy green policies. Our first clue came at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. At an outdoor café, a young boy asked for our thick plastic cups as we headed for the garbage bins. I didn’t give it a thought until later when we came across a food plaza.

The longest line wasn’t to buy pølse sausage or frikadeller meat balls. Instead, kids swarmed a thin vending machine. Excitedly, they fed it stacks of upside-down plastic cups. Then cha-ching… krones spit out the bottom.

Aha, recycling! Unknowingly at dinner, we had paid a deposit of three Danish krones (about 17 cents each) for our cup. The deposit policy was citywide.   

Our next “green moment” occurred by observation. On the streets, half of the two million people rode bicycles.  These eco-riders included business women and men in suits, and some of the heartiest senior citizens ever seen, cycling the city in hordes. 

When we headed to the countryside, our enviro-education continued.  On the trains, all seats had “Trash to Go” plastic bags. Obviously, the citizens were well trained since the “wagons” were spotless. They not only policed themselves but even bagged discarded newspapers and other delinquent debris. 

To control our food budget, we booked many rooms with kitchens. The refrigerators were so small, we surmised, because energy prices were so large. Several proprietors confirmed this: electricity cost about 20 cents a kilowatt-hour. (Tucson Electric Power’s rate is about 8.4 cents per kilowatt-hour.)     

Water is liquid gold. Throughout Scandinavia, every toilet had two flush buttons: one for a piddling, little flush, the other for a powerful full flush.

In some hotel rooms and hostels, lights were hard-wired into the wall. There were no outlets.  We learned to recharge iPods and cameras on trains. 

From what we saw, Norway had the most aggressive — and punitive — green policies. To push recycling, the government taxes milk and juice cartons. Understandably, families don’t like it because the eco-fees make kids drinks more expensive.     

We thought Oslo was tree-hugger nirvana. Unable to find a phone book anywhere on the streets, we finally asked our hotel clerk for help.  He just rolled his eyes:  “It’s all online.” 

Thanks to the Internet, millions of trees have been saved. 

The “green-ness” of Norway’s grocery stores was tricky. The locals knew the drill: bring your own bags or pay 15 cents each.  Lesson learned, we implemented the re-use routine.   

In one town, however, the markets were bag-less. Due to the government’s eco-tax on bags, shoppers had been on their own for two years.

By fate, we had no bags that evening. With two days’ of food paid for, I desperately begged the clerk to sell us a used cardboard box for a few Kroners.  It was “no sale” because it violated their recycling guidelines. 

Baffled, I took off my jacket. I shaped it into a pouch, set the bulky items inside and slid cans into the sleeves. I closed the zipper and Santa-like, cradled our cache to the car.  My wife and daughter carried the breads.

Even laundry had an eco-price.  While staying at a small university boarding house, the girls had two small loads to do.  By the time they finished, it had cost them four hours of time.     

The delay was due to the tiny washing machine, about the size of an orange Home Depot bucket.  And the clothes had to air-dry on racks, like a Subway shop’s bake oven.   

Throughout Scandinavia, mini-cars ruled.  Pick-up trucks and SUVs were as scarce as snow in Tucson. And no wonder; gas ranged from $8 to $11 per gallon and we were told of the government’s horrid 150 percent sales tax on vehicles. 

This is a true story, drawn from Roger Yohem’s 25-year, award-winning communications career with the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, Tucson Electric Power and Southwest Gas. His column looking at the lighter side of “challenges” in the business world appears the first and third weeks of each month in Inside Tucson Business.