It will surprise few to hear Japan is the world’s second-largest generator of plastic waste. You only have to look at an Instagram accounts such as Plastic Obsessed Japan to grasp the issue. Its uploads — such as a single tomato, packed on a styrofoam bed, placed in black plastic tray and wrapped in plastic — criticize the country’s superfluous amount of packaging. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, of the 9 billion tons of plastic that have ever been produced, only 9 percent has been recycled. Japan may have low levels of landfill-bound waste compared to the U.S., the world’s biggest generator of waste per capita as of 2019, but plastic in Japan is often thermally “recycled” for electricity and hot water, and is still produced and used at an alarmingly high rate.
Zerowaste.Japan is an Instagram account and YouTube channel run by Japanese mother of two, Ran Nomura, who lives with her family in a small apartment in Osaka. Nomura shares tips about reducing waste in everyday life to her more than 148,000 followers. It’s garnered her a number of feature spots in media, from Japanese magazines and newspapers to American lifestyle websites. Zero Waste Japan, a separate Facebook group founded by Bianca Yamaguchi, provides a place for Japanese residents to share their own stories on zero-waste living, ask for help or advice, and link to local Japanese farmers who send groceries straight to the door, sans excess packaging.
Sustainable Living Tokyo, run by Cecilia Grandi-Nagashiro, is a smaller Facebook group with around 500 members. A doctoral candidate at the University of Tokyo, Grandi-Nagashiro’s research focuses on designing effective ways to adopt sustainable lifestyles based on environmental psychology and consumption studies.
Source: Japan Times
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