On our first Christmas as a married couple, my American husband shocked me by suggesting that I just tear the wrapping paper off my gifts and throw it away. Throw it away without reusing it? Was he serious?

Growing up in post-war West Germany, I learned from an early age to reuse everything. My mother was a child of the Great Depression. She was a recycler long before that term was popular. In our house, we recycled everything: Some of my clothes were handed down from my older brother or my even older cousin; kitchen garbage was thrown on the compost heap; newspapers and bread bags were reused to wipe out a greasy pot.

We opened Christmas gifts very carefully so that we could save the paper for next year and the year after that. Before next Christmas we ironed the paper and even the ribbons. Only strangers received new gift wrap. We also reused the Advent calendar by closing the doors again. They did not contain chocolate back then. Of course, they didn't close all the way after a few years, but that was no reason to throw the calendar away.

Recycling is a way of life in Germany, and waste disposal is strictly regulated. You have to pick up a garbage can at your city hall. Its size is determined by the number of people in your household (they are tiny by American standards). Bulk trash, like furniture or appliances, only gets picked up twice a year.

In stores, customers not only bag their own purchases, but are expected to bring their own grocery bags or boxes. Otherwise they have to buy a plastic bag. And those plastic bags are sturdy enough for reuse.

Beverages, such as mineral water or beer, are sold in glass bottles and the customer pays a deposit for the case and the bottles, thus ensuring that he will return the empty cases. Nothing motivates people like money. This practice cuts the use of aluminum cans enormously.

In other words: Germany was -- and still is -- years ahead of the United States when it comes to recycling.

After being such conditioned, I married an American. When we moved to the United States I had to forget everything I knew about recycling and waste production. I was amazed that people could put as much trash as they wanted out on the curb. In fact, people put couches or other large items out every week. I was flabbergasted at all the disposable items that landed in the garbage every week. Many more ended up littering roads and hillsides.

Another eye-opener was my first trip to the grocery store. There were baggers who put my purchases in a mountain of plastic bags. Hesitant to throw these bags away, I soon had a collection of bags I didn't know what to do with. Yet, I received strange looks when I rejected a bag for small purchases that easily fit into my purse. Clearly, I was not adapting to the disposable society easily.

Gradually, things began to change. Our township distributed recycling bins. At first, they were only for aluminum cans and glass. Then containers popped up at schools collecting newspapers and magazines. The stores started to sell reusable shopping bags, which I eagerly purchased.

Suddenly, I am hip -- even though I still can't understand why Americans believe that this is such a new concept. And some might actually think they invented recycling!

Yet, I am glad that I am not an oddity anymore when I tell a cashier who offers me a plastic bag, "No thanks, got my own!"

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.