According the the EPA, American's generate roughly 254 million tons of trash a year, approximately 35 percent of which is recycled or composted. Meanwhile, Sweden boasts that more than 99 percent of all household waste there is recycled.

Swedish native Veronica Lundback arrived in Milwaukee in 2001 to attend graduate school at UWM. Back at home, conservation was a way of life.

“I grew up with infomercials on TV about water conservation and you take showers not baths, you turn of the lights when you leave the room, you don’t turn the heat up too much,” Lundback says.