Recycling is done over here. Recycling is not a bad thing. Germany could cut down the Black Forest, and California the forest in the northern part of the state, but why do that when you can recycle the paper? Cans a recycled, saving a lot of energy doing so. Much more electricity is used to extract aluminum from bauxite and turn the metal into a can than simply tossing a used soda can into the recycling bin and having that can be remelted and reused.
As for the pollution regulations, and the recycling, would put those down more to EUers and their global warming/climate change neo-religion than to a sign of high population density.
I say it means there’s a difference between eating meat and eating bodily fluids. In part of asia and africa for instance, there’s a lot more blood eating as a part of the culture. We repudiate this as barbaric. Maybe that’s the point?