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Nothing perturbs me more than the whole plastic problem we have. China and India's plastic and garbage pollution is one thing, but Japan is the place that irks

Nothing perturbs me more than the whole plastic problem we have. China and India's plastic and garbage pollution is one thing, but Japan is the place that irks me the most when it comes to plastic use. I bought bananas that were wrapped in plastic (go figure, right? ) And what did the cashier do? She wrapped it in more plastic! THEN she gave me a plastic bag to put it in! That blew my mind. Like, why? Just _why_? Go to any supermarket in Japan and you'll see fruit and vegetables wrapped in plastic for no good reason at all. It's one of the reasons I typically buy my produce from the local farmers instead of the market now. I mean, why would you _individually_ _wrap_ oranges?

dforrestwilson 8y ago
Yes it’s so odd! The cultural attitude is all about presentation, sometimes to the detriment of practicality. Environment be damned and let’s get it out of sight once it is ugly. If there was any country to lead a full on plastic bag ban you would think it would be Japan just given the heavy reliance on imports.
hguhghuff 8y ago
Gotta love it when you go to the supermarket and the cashier “double bags” your plastic wrapped product.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
jor-el 8y ago
Its very much same in Singapore as well. In supermarket, more often than not, cashier puts one item in one plastic bag, so if you are buying a weeks grocery, you easily get 10-12 plastic bags just like that. The vegetables are pre-packed covered with plastic. Some fruits are packed with another harder plastic - apart from the laminated plastic. And the thing that bothered me the most is during chinese new year, each mandarin is covered in plastic individually. Why do you want to cover each mandarin, for a fruit which already has a thick peel!! With developed countries, with all educated residents, are finding hard to curb plastic use (or lack of effort), it looks humanity is still some distance away to make a serious dent to use of plastic overall.
- reactor 8y ago
  I read that Singapore waste management/disposal is top notch, those plastic would most likely end up in incinerator and eventually to man-made offshore Semakau Landfill which itself is an attraction spot. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/a-rare-glimpse-into-the-processes-behind-singapore-s-waste-dispo-7960348 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/a-rare-glimps... https://thesmartlocal.com/read/semakau-landfill https://thesmartlocal.com/read/semakau-landfill
  - mrpopo 8y ago
    This is just throwing more (fossil fuel) energy into collecting and burning avoidable trash and into building more structures to accomodate it. How is that "top notch"? This might solve the short-term plastic pollution issue, but goes against all recommendations for climate change mitigation. It's time to start considering CO2 emissions as our transparent, unmanageable trash. Each Singaporean is generating 10 tonnes of it yearly, and each American is generating 16 tonnes of it yearly.
    - azernik 8y ago
      Incineration actually recovers energy from trash - plastics are made from fairly complex petrochemicals, and so have a decent energy content. The climate change issue is that, when burning it, you release carbon just like when burning any other fossil fuel.
      - mrpopo 8y ago
        Technically, it's even worse than other fossil fuels, because of all the extra steps involved in the plastic life-cycle, increasing its carbon footprint. Waste-to-energy is a growing part of Singapore's energy mix, and that's not exciting news.
titzer 8y ago
They are wrapped in plastic so they can source them from even farther away, where it's is even cheaper. So the entire supply chain gets longer and less efficient (pollution, energy, and sustainability-wise) because it is cheaper for producers. In short, more profit. This is capitalism.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> I mean, why would you _individually_ _wrap_ oranges? Especially peeled ones. Right? I asked this some time ago here, and the answer I got was "people with motor skills problems". I still don't know how to feel about it - I don't know the relative sizes of genuine demand vs. the scale at which such goods are provided. Still, that's an exception. What you described is absolutely ridiculous. I'm already appalled by the amount of packaging we use here in Poland for no reason other than providing advertising surface, but the stories from Japan make my heart bleed.

dforrestwilson 8y ago

Yes it’s so odd! The cultural attitude is all about presentation, sometimes to the detriment of practicality. Environment be damned and let’s get it out of sight once it is ugly. If there was any country to lead a full on plastic bag ban you would think it would be Japan just given the heavy reliance on imports.

hguhghuff 8y ago

Gotta love it when you go to the supermarket and the cashier “double bags” your plastic wrapped product.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

jor-el 8y ago

Its very much same in Singapore as well. In supermarket, more often than not, cashier puts one item in one plastic bag, so if you are buying a weeks grocery, you easily get 10-12 plastic bags just like that. The vegetables are pre-packed covered with plastic. Some fruits are packed with another harder plastic - apart from the laminated plastic. And the thing that bothered me the most is during chinese new year, each mandarin is covered in plastic individually. Why do you want to cover each mandarin, for a fruit which already has a thick peel!! With developed countries, with all educated residents, are finding hard to curb plastic use (or lack of effort), it looks humanity is still some distance away to make a serious dent to use of plastic overall.

reactor 8y ago
I read that Singapore waste management/disposal is top notch, those plastic would most likely end up in incinerator and eventually to man-made offshore Semakau Landfill which itself is an attraction spot. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/a-rare-glimpse-into-the-processes-behind-singapore-s-waste-dispo-7960348 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/a-rare-glimps... https://thesmartlocal.com/read/semakau-landfill https://thesmartlocal.com/read/semakau-landfill
- mrpopo 8y ago
  This is just throwing more (fossil fuel) energy into collecting and burning avoidable trash and into building more structures to accomodate it. How is that "top notch"? This might solve the short-term plastic pollution issue, but goes against all recommendations for climate change mitigation. It's time to start considering CO2 emissions as our transparent, unmanageable trash. Each Singaporean is generating 10 tonnes of it yearly, and each American is generating 16 tonnes of it yearly.
  - azernik 8y ago
    Incineration actually recovers energy from trash - plastics are made from fairly complex petrochemicals, and so have a decent energy content. The climate change issue is that, when burning it, you release carbon just like when burning any other fossil fuel.
    - mrpopo 8y ago
      Technically, it's even worse than other fossil fuels, because of all the extra steps involved in the plastic life-cycle, increasing its carbon footprint. Waste-to-energy is a growing part of Singapore's energy mix, and that's not exciting news.

titzer 8y ago

They are wrapped in plastic so they can source them from even farther away, where it's is even cheaper. So the entire supply chain gets longer and less efficient (pollution, energy, and sustainability-wise) because it is cheaper for producers. In short, more profit. This is capitalism.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> I mean, why would you _individually_ _wrap_ oranges? Especially peeled ones. Right? I asked this some time ago here, and the answer I got was "people with motor skills problems". I still don't know how to feel about it - I don't know the relative sizes of genuine demand vs. the scale at which such goods are provided. Still, that's an exception. What you described is absolutely ridiculous. I'm already appalled by the amount of packaging we use here in Poland for no reason other than providing advertising surface, but the stories from Japan make my heart bleed.