Environmental, Economical or merely Cultural?

Is life in Ireland really any different from the US?  True, at first glance it may be quite similar.  I mean, there is a reason why Ireland ranks among the top countries to visit for US travelers. They speak the same language, you can find similar food....its relatively easy.  But when you get down to it, there are so many small differences to look out for.  Here is a list of what I have noticed thus far from my few days in Dublin and Balbriggan (just north of Dublin Airport) that are a bit different from what I would find in the US.  Not sure if these are for environmental, economical purposes or maybe they are just cultural: 

• Toilets- Attempting to be more environmentally friendly than we are in the US, many toilets here have two buttons to choose from after you do your business.  A larger one and a smaller one, each controlling the amount of water that is flushed depending on what is needed.  
• Shower heaters- In many of the houses if you want hot water there is a button to push or string to pull to turn the water heater on.  Give it a few minutes to warm up and you will have a nice hot shower.  
• Outlet switches- If you want to plug into the wall, you will want to make sure to flip the button to turn the power to the outlet on....another energy saving device I have seen in other areas of the world that I wish we would adopt in the US.  
• Transportation- Obviously they drive on the 'other' side of the road (left), and cars are much smaller, but if you live anywhere near a city you will find yourself walking, biking or taking the LUAS (Dublin Light Rail System....Luas is Irish for "speed"), train or DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) systems.  The routes may not be as easy to figure out for foreigners (or maybe its just me) but when you get the hang of it, their public transportation system can get you pretty much everywhere you need to go.  Students get cheaper fares and the elderly (over the age of 65) ride the public transport for free.  If the buses go on strike like when I was in Dublin, you hope for good weather and take the long walk into town.  
• Refrigerators- Small and compact by American standards with the freezer and refrigerator typically being about the same size.  With the limited space, you will definitely not be doing any Costco shopping to stock up.  
• Burning wood or peat turf- Depending on where you live (west or east) you may burn wood or peat turf taken from the peat bogs.  There is an interesting paper examining the security, competitiveness and environmental impacts of burning peat.  
• Recycling- In Balbriggan (it varies a little by county) where my cousin lives, she has three garbage cans.  Two are free for the city to take but you can only fill them with recyclable food waste or other recycled products such as paper and plastic (though Teresa throws "Pure Pak" paper products in her wood burning stove to heat the living room).  The third bin is for regular every day trash which costs 7 Euros for 240L of trash.  
• Grocery Shopping- This obviously varies per family but Teresa, being in the farming industry, is careful to buy local foods which are clearly labeled as a product of Ireland.  Being out in the country she is able to have chickens and grow some of her own fruit.