I went to my local grocery shop on my way home tonight, and patriotically grabbed some Aussie Beef for dinner. Even though the carefully presented small slices of beef were already in a plastic wrapped foam tray, the checkout-chick (I wonder what the Japanese equivalent of that phrase is?) put the tray in another clear plastic bag before putting it in a plastic carry bag with my other purchases.
And then the same thing happened with my potato salad.
And again with my cantaloupe/rockmelon.
Isn’t this all a bit much?
The gargage separation rules here are quite sophisticated. These are the current rules for my local city (Shibuya). http://www.city.shinjuku.tokyo.jp/foreign/english/pdf/other/dashikata_20e.pdf
And I’ve noticed that Japanese society seems to be very conscious of CO2 emissions and environmental issues. For example, there are lots of ads on the subway extolling the environmental virtues of different products.
But perhaps it would be better if there wasn’t so much plastic packaging used in the first place!
(Then again, Australia could learn a lot about different categories of recycling from Japan – for example, things like dry cell batteries, foam food trays.)
Davo I don’t want to post comments on ALL your blog entries but geezuz the Ward Separation Guide was hilarious. Particularly the bit where if, by some dumb luck, you have an animal carcass over 25 kg found on your property, you’re liable for a fee for removal.
That is funny. I hadn’t noticed that one. I’ll have to watch out for dead animals on the balcony.