3 ms·

The space needed for landfills is negligible. Any country with room for farming has room for landfills.

snakeyjake 3y ago
>Any country with room for farming has room for landfills. Japan does not have enough room for farming. Practically the entire countryside is dotted with farms and they still have to import over half of their food. "Japan has a severe shortage of arable land, covering only 11% of Japan’s total territory. The country’s self-sufficiency rate currently stands at 39%." https://www.eu-japan.eu/eubusinessinjapan/sectors/agroindustry https://www.eu-japan.eu/eubusinessinjapan/sectors/agroindust... For comparison, the US's self-sufficiency rate is well over 100%. Some "bread basket" nations like Ukraine, Argentina, and Australia have self-sufficiency rates over 200%.
- kiba 3y ago
  How much is that for meat and feed?
  - snakeyjake 3y ago
    Not enough to make a difference. There’s a reason Japanese beef is the most expensive in the world.
ThrowawayTestr 3y ago
So if it isn't to save land, why does Japan go through the effort to burn or recycle most of it's trash? Altruism?
- ZeroGravitas 3y ago
  Even if you have the land to spare, burning (with energy recovery) and recycling are better on various environmental and economic axis.
  - ThrowawayTestr 3y ago
    Then why doesn't every country do it?
- autoexec 3y ago
  > why does Japan go through the effort to burn or recycle most of it's trash? Altruism? Responsibility? Sanity? The real question is why do other countries just push the problem of their trash onto other poorer countries or destroy their own land with toxic trash heaps. Even if you have plenty of space to fill with garbage why wouldn't you want to keep it clean/unpolluted? No matter how much square footage my house has, I'm still going to put my trash in a bin and take it outside instead of throwing it on the carpet and sweeping it into a corner.
KevinMS 3y ago
people have a hard time conceptualizing the real size of volume

>Any country with room for farming has room for landfills. Japan does not have enough room for farming. Practically the entire countryside is dotted with farms and they still have to import over half of their food. "Japan has a severe shortage of arable land, covering only 11% of Japan’s total territory. The country’s self-sufficiency rate currently stands at 39%." https://www.eu-japan.eu/eubusinessinjapan/sectors/agroindustry https://www.eu-japan.eu/eubusinessinjapan/sectors/agroindust... For comparison, the US's self-sufficiency rate is well over 100%. Some "bread basket" nations like Ukraine, Argentina, and Australia have self-sufficiency rates over 200%.

kiba 3y ago
How much is that for meat and feed?
- snakeyjake 3y ago
  Not enough to make a difference. There’s a reason Japanese beef is the most expensive in the world.

ThrowawayTestr 3y ago

So if it isn't to save land, why does Japan go through the effort to burn or recycle most of it's trash? Altruism?

ZeroGravitas 3y ago
Even if you have the land to spare, burning (with energy recovery) and recycling are better on various environmental and economic axis.
- ThrowawayTestr 3y ago
  Then why doesn't every country do it?
autoexec 3y ago
> why does Japan go through the effort to burn or recycle most of it's trash? Altruism? Responsibility? Sanity? The real question is why do other countries just push the problem of their trash onto other poorer countries or destroy their own land with toxic trash heaps. Even if you have plenty of space to fill with garbage why wouldn't you want to keep it clean/unpolluted? No matter how much square footage my house has, I'm still going to put my trash in a bin and take it outside instead of throwing it on the carpet and sweeping it into a corner.

KevinMS 3y ago

people have a hard time conceptualizing the real size of volume