I’m writing the finishing touches of this particular blog as I sit in Hinase, Japan. Spoiler: This month has been a whirlwind and has definitely NOT been plastic free.
I admit that my use of plastic and waste in general has gone back up again over the past few months. I put it down to life being so hectic that I haven’t allowed myself to plan, thereby resorting to old habits and leaning on the systems automatically in place in the community.
While I was excited for an opportunity to reset this Plastic-Free July, this month was a particularly inconvenient stage in my life to take up the challenge. In the space of two weeks, I resigned from my job, moved out of the apartment my husband and I lived in for 2 years, stayed a week each at different family members’ houses, all while packing and organising the finishing touches to our big move to Japan. But when has rubbish ever been convenient for the planet?
The first week of July was confronting, as I realised again just how much waste I’ve been producing. I did hold back on a couple of things, but otherwise it was business as usual. I didn’t have good habits or my containers and jars to fall back on because we were moving around. I’ve left a list at the bottom of this blog so you can see what I used in one week (that I took track of).
Then before I knew it, we dropped into Japan. The flight over wasn’t as terrible as it could have been. I used my Keep Cup for tea, my drink bottle for water and refills, and only bought one in-flight meal. For the other meal and snacks we took our own food in a reusable container. But once we were in Tokyo, it was practically impossible to avoid plastic.
Normally at home, to avoid waste I would shop at the usual supermarket, then maybe buy some other bits and pieces at bulk food shops. In the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka, it was hard to track down a grocery shop, the products they sold were in plastic, and our accommodations didn’t usually have implements needed for preparing or eating home made meals. Honestly, even the markets had pretty much everything packaged. We’re on a budget so we couldn’t eat out for every meal, meaning we regularly went to the convenience stores to eat.
We’re now living in Hinase (Population: 8347), a town famous for oyster farming, and are loving the small-town atmosphere. While plastic-free is still nigh-impossible, we have the humble benefit of locals providing us with vegetables (or even seafood and home-cooked meals) every week from their farms or backyards. I bought a peach from a vendor at the local fish market, and I plan to return the foam packing sleeve to him next time we venture that way. The local shopping centre doesn’t bag groceries for customers, so we can keep using our reusable bags without the awkward request for cashiers to not automatically offer us the plastic bag + straw + cutlery + wet towel combo at every purchase. We’ve even managed to find some vegetables that aren’t in plastic!!! (We’ve been eating plenty of carrots and cabbage)
That being said, we’ve still gotta eat. In our fridge and pantry right now, we have the following in plastic: noodles, butter, soy sauce, cling wrap on left-overs (I only have one reusable container with me), edamame beans, bean sprouts, grapes (given to us by a local), ice blocks (it’s ridiculously hot), dashi stock (gifted to us), tofu, eggs, rice, curry cubes, pasta. That’s off the top of my head, because I really don’t want to leave this air-conditioned room to go upstairs and check. Yes, that’s lazy, sorry.
But another challenge for consideration here is that Japan’s recycling rules are different to Australia. So, while the milk isn’t in plastic, it’s not recyclable and may as well be lumped in with the rest. But that’s a story for another day…
In summary, this was a pretty disappointing month for my waste production. But I have decided to be kind to myself and see this as a challenge. Plus one can’t ignore that it’s super exciting I’m finally fulfilling my dream of living in Japan! It’s good to get out of my bubble. It will force me to be creative and perhaps find some new ways to live my zero/reduced waste lifestyle.
What did you learn from Plastic Free July?
What waste did you avoid during Plastic Free July?
-Katherine
Waste from Week 1 of my Definitely-Not-Plastice-Free July
Difficult to avoid
- Eye drops bottle and its freshness seal
- Lids on vitamin bottles x2
- Contact lenses and their packets x14
- Packaging for new ear phones (getting ready for travel)
- Old earphones for disposal (not salvageable)
- One load of washing, which sent microfibres into the water stream
Avoidable
- Wrapper for a muesli bar Mum gave me
- Plastic fastener from a clothing tag, attached to pants (made of synthetic material) that I bought from an op shop
- Yoghurt containers x2
- Milk cartons x2 (so much tea! Shared use with the family)
- Bread bags x3 (also so much bread!)
- Chicken breast tray, seal, and absorbent packets
- Oats packet
- Chocolate wrapper (I thought it was going to be alfoil!)
- Tea bag foil wrapper x2
- Baby spinach bag
- Ice tea bottle (I was expecting it to be homemade at the restaurant)
- Plastic straws x2 (Both in the same drink!)
- Cling wrap
- Sticky tape
And I know for sure there’s more that I can’t think of. But holy moly, that’s a lot of plastic for the first week of the month.
green tea blog 