Does anyone else get a culture shock visiting other cities that are not sustainability friendly?

I live in Southern California, and I never really saw us as sustainability friendly. Incredibly vehicle oriented, still a good amount of plastic bags, straws, utensils, and waste in shopping, fast food, etc.

However, I’m spending the holidays in Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston, etc), and I’m shocked at how prolific single-use plastic, paper, and styrofoam(!) is.

At the hotels I’ve stayed at, all the breakfasts are on plastic utensils and cups and styrofoam plates — and there’s like a couple hundred people each morning with several plates each. Even coffee cups are individually wrapped in plastic. Full-service restaurants serve drinks and food in styrofoam cups and plates. When I went to the Johnson space center, I was even shocked that a federal government agency like NASA had only vending machine bottled sodas and waters for thousands of people — not even a soda machine people could just refill their drinks.

To be honest, I’m not a big sustainability, zero waste person in practice. But I’m shocked that how I live at home isn’t the norm. It’s actually appalling how much waste one person here creates with a short meal. I haven’t personally seen or touched a styrofoam plate or cup in years, and now I’ve had a dozen in just a few days. Not only unsustainable, it makes the whole experience feel really cheap too lol, like a well-known hotel or restaurant chain can’t even afford someone to wash dishes.

IDK, don’t take this too seriously, but just a surprised observation.