As a moderately sustainable
student (more so during my undergraduate studies), I couldn’t help but compare
and contrast the general ‘greenness’ of Japan as a country and a society. There
were some pretty great absences of disposable products in some places, and some
egregious uses of them in others.
For instance, the majority of
public restaurants and eating establishments offer free glasses of water and
green tea with unlimited refills. What’s more, casual/fast dining places (like
cafeterias) tend to have automated machines that dispense a pre-measured quantity
of ice and water/tea. The volumes dispensed by machine and by hand are
generally much smaller (probably half the size or less) than American
equivalents, which I could imagine reduces the disposal of excess liquids.
Moreover, leftover drinks are usually disposed of in large buckets or chutes
near garbage cans/tray return areas, presumably to prevent the aggregation of
liquids in trash bags and landfills (perhaps they’re also filtered/purified and
recycled?). Recycling and non-recycling trash bins are always available in
pairs (notated as non-combustible and combustible, respectively), whereas the
only restaurant chain that I know of consistently having recycling bins in the
States is Starbucks. However, in public areas, these disposable bins are relatively
few and far between – I assume this is because eating and drinking in public
are generally considered rude, such that trash on the streets is not expected.
In contrast, public drinking
fountains and places to refill reusable water bottles are pretty non-existent.
Instead, vending machines can be found at least every few blocks with a variety
of canned or bottled beverages from mostly Japanese companies (although Coca
Cola has a pretty consistent presence in these machines). While generally
cheaper (120 yen on average, or roughly $1.20) per bottle than in America, the
overall system seems predisposed to generate an excessive amount of bottle
waste. Perhaps this is another reason for the scarcity of trash/recycling bins
in public areas – to discourage the purchase of disposable drink containers? (On
a side note, another interesting observation I had was how very clean and litter-free the streets were,
despite the lack of public disposal bins). As such, I highly recommend bringing
a reusable water bottle (and a portable water filter if you’re picky about
taste) with you, to fill every morning before leaving your hotel or place of
residence. I really liked the Whirlpool Every Drop water filter – it was pretty
travel friendly and really quick to filter water.
I also brought along my new, trusty, 48-oz Nalgene bottle.
Although the full bottle added weight (probably at least a pound) to my
backpack, it wasn’t excessive, and I was extremely grateful for the ready supply
of water throughout the day. I personally never finished more than one full
bottle in a single day, but I’m also not usually one to drink a lot of fluids
either (despite the fact that I live in AZ). You could certainly bring a
smaller bottle and try to refill it as needed, but I personally didn’t see many
places to do so, and definitely didn’t know how to ask for someone to fill it
at restaurants. I’m sure it’s possible though.
Obviously, the prevalence of
public transportation probably results in a relatively low carbon footprint
compared to countries like the United States. However, the sheer density of the
population and number of buildings in urban areas might negate some of the
green benefits gained by the use of extensive public transportation. I would
definitely need to look into the hard numbers and data a bit to really assess
this.
Toilet paper and paper towel waste
also seem to be significantly lower in Japan than in the States. There are some
public restrooms that do not have toilet paper available, and nearly all
restrooms do not have paper towels at all. We gathered that most people always
have a hand towel with them (for mopping up sweat and, presumably, for drying
off wet hands), such that paper towels are not necessary. This seems to be a
good tradeoff for the increase in paper waste that’s likely generated by the
public transportation system. Although it seems that many citizens have either
electronic passes on their phones or reloadable plastic cards to pay for public
transportation fares, there are still a large number who buy paper tickets for
every trip (tourists especially, I’m sure).
Finally, although it seems that
nearly everyone (especially the women) carries some sizeable handbag or
backpack sufficient to carry one’s daily purchases, the Japanese are
ridiculously big on the packaging of purchased goods. Unless you specifically
object, shopkeepers and cashiers will individually wrap or bag each purchased
item in paper, and then put all of the items into a larger paper or plastic bag
to boot. Even when I showed them that I had my own reusable tote bag, many of
the souvenirs that I bought ended up in paper or plastic bags. The only way I
was able to consistently reduce the amount of packaging that I accumulated was
to say ‘together’ as much as possible. This generally encouraged the baggers to
lump like items together into larger bags, i.e. 3 fans in 1 paper bag, instead
of wrapping each one individually. Nonetheless, I accumulated an unnecessarily
large pile of packaging supplies by the end of the week. If you can research
better ways to ask for things to be left unwrapped before you go, I would
definitely encourage you to do so in order to cut down on the excess waste.
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