Source: Schott

As globalization continues, importing and exporting goods from opposite corners of the globe has become more and more ubiquitous. As a result, the consumer market in America has become more eclectic, and we buyers seemingly have anything they could ever want at their fingertips. The importation of these products happens for varying reasons, one being the lower production standards of some foreign countries. These low production standards can lower production costs, subsequently lowering the price for which a  product is sold. However, a smaller price tag can indicate a higher price paid by our environment.

Many of the products that are imported into the United States come from China and India. While both of these countries have had two of the fastest growing economies over the past 30 years, they are also both known to have some of the most disreputable environmental standards.

Over the past 200 years America has implemented ways to ensure the protection of the environment while still efficiently producing goods. One of these ways includes the Environmental Protection Agency established in 1970. This agency ensures that a certain environmental standard is maintained, minimizing the amount of polluting byproducts created during the manufacturing processes.

Other environmental regulations are enforced on state and local levels, and America has invested trillions of dollars in cutting down on pollution. These steps have led to the minimization of environmental deterioration in the U.S., such as a sixty-percent decrease in pollutants that cause acid rain, smog and lead poisoning.

While India and China’s industrialization has done wonders for their economies, the effects on our environment and the health of their citizens is cause for concern. Huffington Post reports that China has become the world’s leader in CO2 and SO2 emissions, and Easterly trade winds are even bringing some of these pollutants to the Northwestern region of the United States, endangering Americans.

With all of the different agencies and standards put in place by the United States government to protect the environment and American people, and the lack thereof in other countries, it is ever important to support American-made companies to increase Stateside manufacturing!.

Via: RCP Block and Brick