Japan's Problem with Plastic Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- In my videos about Japan I'll often get comments about the amount of plastic used. Does Japan have a plastic problem?
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Sources
- • 竹内まりや - Plastic Love ...
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- www.statista.c...
- www.theguardia...
- packagingeurop...
- thisisplastics...
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- www.city.minat...
- www.city.setag...
- www.pwmi.or.jp...
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- infinitum.no/m...
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- phys.org/news/...
- • Reisen bak panteautoma...
- plasticsmartci...
- www.veolia.de/...
- • Recycling plastic wast... v
- www.japantimes...
- www.suntory.co...
- www.petbottle-...
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- www.reuters.co...
- www.japantimes...
- www.washington...
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- www.japantimes...
- www.nytimes.co...
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I'm a Chemist. Unless we break down the polymers back into their building blocks (monomers), all plastics can only be mechanically recycled a very limited number of times, before the mechanical properties significantly change. This is due to the chain length of the polymer decreasing with further and further recycling. Hope this clears up some misconceptions on plastics.
I second this opinion, recycled plastics have challenges meeting the mechanical strength and moldability requirements that virgin plastics can easily meet, this is why blends are used instead of straight 100% recycled.
How true is the process to take most plastics, and, through a not too complicated process, turn them back into certain grades of oil?
@@j.lietka9406 not true. We can turn them either into simple chemicals (ethylene, carbon monoxide. And the like) or we can turn them back into their monomers (their building blocks), depending on the polymer. The latter is easy-ish for PET, not sure how much it is used industrially though.
@@JustinKoenigSilica even tho there is supposedly a large or semi large plant in Australia that is taking waste plastics (some types I believe) and turning back into an oil product? Really?! Too good to be true?!
There is an Australian company that converts plastics back into crude-like oil. Not sure how much energy is required in the process.
Here in the states, we have a huge plastic problem where over 90% of "recycled" plastic aren't recycled. The plastic industry lobbied hard to prevent one of our senators, Sheldon Whitehouse, from passing legislation that will limit their use.
Maybe it's where/when I grew up here in California or how I was raised, but it has always seemed kinda crazy to me how most people don't recycle. Like when out and about, people would just throw out an empty Coke bottle out instead of looking for a recycle bin (my family would usually hang on to it to recycle later for CRV). But I suppose if most "recycled" plastic isn't actually recycled, I guess it kinda (but not really) justifies people being lazy. Also, I guess some people haven't gotten into the habit of it since not every state, county, city, etc. has a recycling program.
I moved into an area where my trash company routinely just picks up the recycling bin and dumps it with the regular trash. its AWFUL. Not only because it wont be separated and recycled in some form, but all the water used to clean the plastics before recycling also is now wasted.
Better off incinerating it or going back to glass and or combustible packaging. Recycling plastic is joke at this point. This video is just another nail in the coffin of the myth of plastic recycling.
I find it crazy that brands known for their glasses bottles recently switched to plastic despite the huge recycling push since the 90s (I'm looking at you Snapple and Sobe).
@@hydrazine884 to be fare it is often a long proses to get people to change habits.
You do see certain programs for schools and what not. and if a community would do that well. So schools, offices, shops, free time clubs and even a portion of the homes of students going to said school. Those kids can start a habit of at least throwing there trash in different bins.
Here in the Netherlands for most it also took about a 30 years work to get to the level we are now. and there is still a long way to get better still.
One of the best way to reduce plastic use in bottles is to provide good quality drinking water from the tap. Then people don't need to buy any water from the store.
Great video, all wonderful points.
Remember the 3 R's. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. There's a reason why recycle is the LAST on the list. Reducing usage and finding reusable solutions are MILES ahead of recycling.
At the moment, I work in plastic recyceling research and in the first 3,5 minutes you covered SO much knowledge students at our uni have to learn in 3 years - that's really great! Also the method you used to determine how much plastic/ g food is used is actually scientifically correct. Thanks for all the source material, I am in fact interested in studying if there's a difference in the way Japan and Europe treat their plastic waste. (seems not so much) So your video is motivating me to follow up on that question!
@@princess-violet I can say after introducing deposits on all small plastic water and soda bottles last year. Here in the Netherlands you do notice it when collecting litter of the streets.
(before 2021 only larger bottles did have deposits on them)
So in that sense it did really work if it only reduces the trash dumped in the streets then even that is a win.
I asked another person on the list of comments, can certain types of plastics be turned into a kind of crude oil? Or is that just hype? Thank you 🤓
@@j.lietka9406 yes. For instance number 2 (US) plastic HDPE is High Density Poly Ethylene. Breaking the bonds that make it dense and removing some of the plastic additives like calcium through the process of gasification can make a material that is chemically similar to fuel. Though it is somewhat impure the main issue with it is the cost and the CO2 cost to convert it. Both are sky high.
@@PlancoandChill I kind of wondered about how much it costs to make! At least with a kind of oil or eventually fuel, it doesn't have to be recycled again. Can the CO2 be contained? Which is another problem! Thank you 🤓
I am Norwegian and very happy with our bottle recycling system. It is very nice to collect a lot of bottles and get money back for them! I always keep my bottles until I can recycle them.
Same here in Germany! I think that the recycling system for plastic bottles and even glas jars is actually quite effective at keeping garbage off the streets. As a college student, it's quite nice to know that you can make a little money from the heaps of beer and soft drink bottles that tend to pile up in dorms :D And many homeless people and senior citizens tend to collect those bottles,which do end up in the regular garbage or get thrown out carelessly, to collect the return bonus. In a way, the system is quite ingenious. I always wonder how this could be transferred to other types of materials.
In Norway sadly the bottles often laying around and no one cares. The deposid seems to low for the norwegian income.
@@Yo_Hahn I don't experience that too often myself. Usually it is after Fridays and Saturdays when people have been drinking. In my experience there are people who go around and collect them afterwards 😊 Of course there will always be some people who won't bother, but at least thats not the case for most people 😄
@@Yo_Hahn how high is the deposit? It’s 25ct in Germany for a PET bottle. Glas is cheaper
But even if you do that, the president of Coca-Cola said that Japan has exceeded 50 per cent material use for plastic bottle recycling, right?
Really well researched and communicated video Greg. You never disappoint with new and interesting topics!
I’ve learnt a lot.
Another great video, Greg. The thoroughness and cited sources make it come off as well researched. I'm of the same opinion as you, where plastic is a VERY nuanced discussion. I try to do my best with not creating waste, but there are times when I just throw a plastic container in the trash because the amount of hot water and soap I would need to clean it seems worse than the plastic itself. People always say glass is better, but like your video mentions, it costs more energy to make, transport and clean, than a feather light plastic bottle. Similar story with cotton bags/totes vs plastic, you'd need to use your cotton bag several thousand times for it cause less environmental harm than plastic bags.
Its an extremely complicated situation. And while plastic is 'bad', its also a super material, cheap, light, waterproof, can be hard or soft, durable or delicate. My opinion is that plastic isnt truly the issue, but energy is. With enough energy alternative options like glass and aluminum make more sense, and plastics can easily be removed from the environment and properly processed. But obviously getting an abundance of energy would solve a ton of problems, and getting there through renewables isnt an easy feat.
Unfortunately I dont think this video will do well on TH-cam. It starts with the misconceptions of Japans plastic use, but deviates into recycling and plastic as a whole. Its a 10/10 video about plastic and recycling, but I fear that the subject isn't a popular one, unless you're a channel like Kurzgesagt. But even if it doesnt do well, I hope you're able to be happy that you made a high quality educational video.
Great point on industry being a huge source of plastic. I've worked at a gas station in the US, the amount of plastic waste we generated every week before products were even stocked on the sales floor was astounding.
So true, used to work at a department store where environmentally friendly paper packaged products on the shelf came wrapped in plastic for the store to remove
US is only "green" as a political talking point. I travel a lot to Asia for work. People think Japan has a plastic issue, but they fail to realize the details this video highlights. Japanese bags are sized to fit the purpose and made very very thin. The US may have less individual bags in a package product but the material is super thick. Us Americans are just silly - we complain about Starbucks straw but we failed to pay attention to the extra plastic used to make the sippy cup lid as replacement for straws...
@@_w_w_ I think cups are awful for drinks like coffee and tea because they spill everywhere if you try to carry them more than half a mile due to shaking, squeezing, and related accidents. Bottles with screw-on lids (or maybe paper cups with tight-fitting paper lids??) are what we need. I have eaten soup out of 100% paper bowls with lids and it was fine, I don't see why we have to keep using plastic for these lids.
@@_w_w_ Just because it's much worse in the states does NOT mean Japan doesn't have an issue. I hear this "what about America" argument CONSTANTLY come up to justify issues in other countries. Just because x issue is worse in America does NOT justify other countries' problems. America is not some sort of "standard" to measure other countries' performances. That is such a low bar. I don't why it is difficult for people to wrap their heads around this.
@@BC33714 No one is saying Japan is perfect. When it comes to waste, the US is the worst offender. I work in an industry that allows me to compare start to end processes, and the American way generates way more waste and we recycle much less.
Glad to see a video that accurately shows Japan's recycling system.
Plastics are derived from crude oil, so they help in combustion.
This way, less fuel is used for incineration.
We should recycle them back into fuel,given the current situation
Unexpected Plastic Love!! Bless you, Greg. You always talk about esoteric subjects I'm curious about. Your channel is becoming very similar in flavor to Japanology and I adore it.
Thanks for covering this topic, I've been wondering how Japan manages its plastic use since I come from the Philippines and pretty much think we have to learn how to manage the use of plastic.
Philippines is not as bad as Japan when it comes to our plastics. Our reason for using lots of plastic isn't for the freshness and whatnot but because they are the more economical option. Our candies and other foods comes with too much plastic because they are portioned in a way that even poor people can buy them. Used to think those "tinge" or sachet packaging were genius but now I think of them more as a necessity.
We still use some of the more traditional packaging. Banana leaves and other similar packaging for food and produce. I see produce from the market shipped in biodegradable baskets with reused sacks.
Locally, shops are using more paper bags, tote bags or they reuse cardboard boxes used to deliver shipments to the super market to pack large purchases. In some pharmacies, they reuse papers that comes with the medicines and make a sort of small paper bags for medicines.
The problem with us though is that we are not as disciplined as Japanese are. The poorer people that are the target of these sachet and "tinge" packaging are the people who are less or uneducated. They throw these garbage everywhere causing drainage blockage and floods. The poor and less educated could not care what other people think of them if they throw their garbage everywhere, while in Japan it is deeply ingrained in their culture and traditions.
We have a lot to learn from other countries and the government has to step up if we want anything substantial to come out of it. We don't need just plants to process these garbage, or companies to make recyclable or biodegradable plastics, we also need a shift in our mindset. Up until mid-college I wasn't really that mindful of my trash. I love science and my course was science related and even then I wasn't really into this environmental stuff. We need to bring back environmental consciousness in the classroom once again if we want more people to care.
"PH sea level rising 3 times faster than world average" というニュースを見ましたが､フィリピンは異常気象の矢面に立たされていると思います｡
Greg, you have pulled together a lot of pieces of the plastics lifecycle into a really great story! I've learned the various parts of it over the years, but nowhere as concise and well documented as you have achieved. Thanks! (It was a disconcerting to hear that you are living alone and I hope everybody is, or will be, ok.)
I was only alone for a few weeks filming. We're all back together again!
One thing to note: cellophane is a plastic. It is NOT a petroleum plastic and cannot be recycled. It seems to be that a lot of the plastic used in supermarkets in JP are cellophane and not a true petroleum plastic...
Oh, interesting.
@@debesys6306 cellulose aka plant fiber, it is treated with sulfide. you could tell because it's crinkly and not stretchy -- it is biodegradable but not recyclable at all. It's a significantly different material than your typical petroleum polymer
In Brazil they sell thicker 2L PET bottles that can be returned to be washed and refilled many times, nearly as much as glass bottles but less breakable and much lighter to transport. Reusing plastic items as-is is always a better option than recycling them.
Very interesting topic as usual, I'm looking forward to the next video. Have a nice rest of the week!! ♥️
Interesting video!
In Austria we have a plant that breaks plastic down and turns it back into crude oil from which any type of plastic can be created again - even medical grade plastic. At the moment 100 litres crude oil per houre are produced from 100 kg plastic waste that is not recycable and would have been incinerated. Seeing as a lot of things are finite resources, finding ways of getting the basic resources back after use, seems like a really good idea. :)
Greg this was a great and educational video! It made me think about how much plastic we use in the USA, and how even though I don't buy tones of stuff in plastic we throw away so much every week.
This was something I couldn't help but think about when watching your past videos. Sadly, even recyclable plastic is a problem, since there is a limit to the number of times plastic can be recycled before it ends up in a "last use" type product (e.g., carpeting, decking material, etc.), or just burned.
I think the best "last use" would be insulation because that is helpful to the environment as well as using the plastic. The whold "it's flammable" thing is BS since almost every other component of the house is flammable as well.
@@randomvideosn0where good idea, but there's a flaw in your reasoning: standard housing INSULATION is not flamable, as it's usually made of glass, rocks, or styrofoam (styrofoam doesn't burn well because it blocks the flow of combustion-related gasses). Housing insulation made of plastic would need to be made with closed cells filled with nonflammable gas in order to prevent fires, and the structure of plastic filled with bubbles isn't very effective as insulation.
@@samsawesomeminecraft The wood structure, wood floor, wood walls, wood sheathing, etc all flammable so as long as the insulation isn't any more likely to catch fire who cares.
the president of Coca-Cola said that Japan has exceeded 50 per cent material use for plastic bottle recycling, right?
@@randomvideosn0where the insulation is more likely to catch fire because electrical fires often start in the walls. Also plastic produces horrific chemical smoke when it burns. Even if everything in the house is "equally flammable" if the insulation is able to produce particularly toxic smoke then it's not quite equal is it? There are copious videos out there explaining why you can't just use plastic as insulation.
excellent discourse, more balanced and comprehensive than many mainstream reporting.
Thank you for this! The use of plastic shocked me when I first came to Japan. The real problem is when waste ends in nature, or by the CO2 it outlets when manufacturing.
Luckily Japan in general have a good garbage collection. But I think there is room for improvement, and happy to see you and others put a spotlight on this! In my country he pay more for beverage bottles but get the money back when we recycle it in designated machines, this gives a monetary incentive and it is very effective. Also I rarely use plastic bags when I shop for grocceries but bring my own bag :) I think I would be shocked by the amount of bags I have saved over the years just by that.
When I was a kid in Los Angeles back in the 1970s, there was broken glass from bottles everywhere I went. Always had to be careful when walking barefoot at rivers and beach.
The cause of this over-packaging is poisoning crime. It wasn't like this in the old days.
Here plastic soda bottles used to be thick plastic, and they were washed and reused multiple times, thanks to our deposit collection system. I still remember the time when they changed to thin bottles, my mom used to complain that it's too hard to pour out of a 1,5l bottle because it's too flimsy now.
It is important to distinguish between "single use plastics" vs "long term use plastics" in general.
Some long term use plastics are carbon sink like insulation for wiring, geotextiles for constructions, piping, water diversion, moisture barrier to prevent mould, pvc pipes, filters, thermal insulators are being deployed for essential and environmental reasons.
largest single-use plastic waste generating countries per capita worldwide 2019
Singapore 76
Australia 59
Oman 56
Netherlands 55
Belgium 55
Israel 55
Hong Kong 55
Switzerland 53
United States 53
UAE 52
Chile 51
South Korea 44
United Kingdom 44
Kuwait 40
New Zealand 39
Ireland 39
Finland 38
Japan 37
In light of the reply, I feel like I need to say smth, in case the post was mis-interpreted:
(a) The first post does not seek to compare one country with another. Waste is waste and excess waste is pollution.
(b) Reducing unnecessary and avoidable waste is a good thing for current generation but future as well. We all want to leave something better for our kids, including the environment.
(c) It re-inforced what Greg said near the end of his video, that is be sensible of the trade off AND this issue is not a binary dichotomy of plastic is bad and no-plastic is good.
Yeah, I agree, there's definitely a difference between single-use and long-term use plastics. And even within single-use, it depends. My biggest takeaway from the video is that it's incredibly complex and the amount of knowledge you need to be able to do the "right" thing where you live is high and what the right thing is changes based on the timing of the markets sometimes. There are some general things that are basically always good (like 99% of the time I use my thermos water bottle instead of bottled water). The biggest changes I saw were when countries decided to put some new system or standard in place and people followed along.
@@LifeWhereImFrom Yup. agree it is complex and yes there are few simple things we can do to reduce single use plastics waste.
One best way imho for reducing "single use" plastic or any single use waste for that matter is to measure how many times we put out the garbage for collection every month. Then try improve that metric every month. What get measure generally get done.
And sarcasm alert - thanks for bringing that thermos up - Now I can't get that image of Greg [with a big grin] hugging all those thermos out from my mind, perhaps for the remaining of today 😵💫lol
Someone I know who lived in Japan told me a nugget of information about plastic use there. He said that the reason why Japan doesn't limit plastic use is because of limited resources; ecofriendly packaging (paper etc) typically uses up natural resources and land, something Japan can't spare/wants to avoid doing. Generating plastic (and dealing with them) in comparison is apparently a lesser evil. Not sure if this is true, am happy to be corrected!
Paper is easily renewable. There are tree farms made specifically for the purpose.
I'm not opposed to plastics use. If you trash plastic in a developed country, it's very difficult for it to make its way into the oceans.
@@grantcivyt Especially when the collection and recycling system of that country is robust.
@@dbclass4075 I'm mainly talking about adequate trash disposal. Plastics recycling isn't very sensible, and it's actually been the cause of a lot of plastics ending up in the ocean. It's another incredible example of people making things worse when trying to do good.
There hasn't been enough self-reflection about this imo.
@@grantcivyt Tree farm in Japan? They probably buy all their Paper from Australia.
@@kazedcat Oh I don't know if Japan has paper farms. I'm saying paper farms are a thing. They're renewable. Better still is paper is recyclable.
when I went to Japan, I was shocked how much packaging there was for everything and was wondering why that is, or what happens to it. Thanks for the video
Yeap, took us 3 days in Japan to start referring to it as Plasticland.
@@no_data_for_you dont get me twisted, I loved japan and hope to go back, one of the greatest trips of my life. I did watch the video, it was just apparent that everything was overpackaged compared to where I am from.
@@no_data_for_you Look, I get the whole "but such and such country is worse" whataboutism that you guys like to use to justify the plastic usage here. I just still don't see the point in producing all that plastic in the first place? At my local conbinis, they have individually plastic-wrapped single bananas. What is the point of that? Protection? Isn't that the point of the banana's peel?
Like I get that we "recycle" it more than most other countries, but I can't help but see how much we could cut-back if we decided to stop wrapping the most unnecessary things in plastic. It's a crazy thought, but we wouldn't have such a high need to recycle if we used less in the first place. Just because other countries are worse does NOT mean that we shouldn't be doing better.
Hats off for making this video and sharing your well documented research 👏
Single-use plastic waste per capita (2019)
1. Singapore 76 kg
2. Australia 59 kg
3. Oman 56 kg
4. Netherlands 55 kg
5. Belgium 55 kg
...
9. USA 53 kg
12. South Korea 44 kg
13. UK 44 kg
18. Japan 37 kg
19. France 36 kg
35. Germany 22 kg
Plastic Waste Makers Index
The Minderoo Foundation
In this case a total usage va per capita would be more relevant.
@@adorabell4253 Per capita means "per person" though, doing a "total" would put countries like the us so far out in front as to make a visual representation for any other country if the US is included all but worthless.
@@rjwaters3 Yes. Because with plastic waste it isn't the per capita amount that is important but the total amount. In the grand scheme of things, I mean. With the volume of plastic used by populous countries just omitting some plastic packaging, which not having a big effect on per capita numbers, will have a giant effect on the physical amount of plastic out there.
@@adorabell4253 While a total usage figure would be useful in describing the scale of the global single-use plastics catastrophe, it's not useful at all when making comparisons between nations which is obviously the intent here.
I take your point though. Ultimately it doesn't really matter which nation is the largest waste producer, we're all going to suffer from the negative environmental effects unless a global effort is made to deal with the issue.
"per capita" is "per capita"
"total" is "total"
both have meanings
Last time I was in Japan, reliably declining plastic bags in konbinis (with limited Japanese skills) was a surprisingly challenging task. Glad to hear itʼs easier now ^^
How much disposable plastic does your country use?
largest single-use plastic waste generating countries per capita worldwide 2019
(Waste volume in kilograms per person)
Singapore 76
Australia 59
Oman 56
Netherlands 55
Belgium 55
Israel 55
Hong Kong 55
Switzerland 53
United States 53
UAE 52
Chile 51
South Korea 44
United Kingdom 44
Kuwait 40
New Zealand 39
Ireland 39
Finland 38
Japan 37
@@Im-fq1mn I’m really surprised Australia is up there since i’m from Australia and now live in Japan. Wew lad
It's cool to have an opinion on Japan's plastic problem.
But if your country's disposable plastic consumption is higher than Japan's, then worry more about your home country than Japan.
@@Im-fq1mn ほんとそれ
Just say 袋要らないです?
What a fantastic episode. I've always wondered about this topic and how Japan manages the amount of plastic used daily. I'm glad you expanded to some other countries. Thank you!
In Northern Ireland most hard (PET) plastics can be recycled at home as long as they're fully cleaned out of food waste, but we have in recent years been branching out into soft plastic recycling (bread/food wrappers etc) but most soft plastic recycling facilities are only available at larger supermarkets/waste facilities which aren't often very accessible to residents in the inner cities/who dont have vehicular access 👎 we also have a "bag for life" concept where you pay up to £1 for a durable plastic bag that you should intend to reuse and when it wears out if you bring your old bag to the store they will replace it with a new one if you hand in the old one for the store to recycle
0:33 I’m loving the city pop reference 😊
In the UK the plastic is ridiculous I went to Japan and is about the same but Japan has way better recycling and at energy reuse.
This has to be the most concise and statistically based piece on this subject
Thank you for talking about it. This wasn't your most engaging video, but it's important and I'm always interested to hear how things are done in Japan.
There was study in 80s between plastic bottles and glass bottles. They looked at transport and results was plastic is better.
Thank you for researching this and making an attempt to site your sources. It makes your statements more credible. I know it's basic journalism but most TH-camrs don't do it so tons of lies and misinformation gets spread.
In the grand scheme of things, the carbon footprint of plastic really isn't that much; energy is. Burning them doesn't look that bad from such a perspective. It's almost like rather than burning oil for energy directly, we at least use it once for something else useful before ultimately turning it into energy.
This video covers a thought I had as well when I was gifted some sweets from Japan. They were wrapped in more plastics than _local sweets_ - there was plastic just EVERYWHERE. To be fair: I didn't consider the plastic thickness. I also didn't consider the return/recycling rate or how the country treats plastic waste.
I think they can definitely cut down on the amount used if they were really challenged to. I'd love to see a push from the government to make minimal packaging a good thing and use whatever levers they can to get companies to minimize usage when it's possible.
I've been wondering the exact same thing, in my experience in Japan and in other parts of Asia I've been in it felt like everything was individually wrapped, in a plastic package, in a plastic bag etc
Really good video
since we get money by turning in bottles in Norway, it's always a fun way for the kids to pick them up and earn some pocket money ^-^
It's not unusual that people throw the bottles away on the street, but since they are worth something, theres always someone who pickes them up.
Just take them to the nearest store, and put them into the machine, and you get a little paper with a bar code that gives you money
This is so much more information that what I expected to learn from this video.
Haha I literally laughed out loud at the Plastic Love bit. I’ve been on an 80s Japanese pop kick, for a while.
Don’t you get copyright, or copy struck, or whatever it’s called, if you use that music? Let alone the video?
For copyright, as long as you keep bits under 10 seconds, you're generally safe on TH-cam. As a creator you can upload a video, wait for TH-cam to scan it for any copyright issues, and only publish if no flags pop-up.
I already enjoy your videos, but that "Plastic Love" clip, compelled me to go listen to the song after I watched your video (I absolutely LOVE that song, by the way!)
Great content, sir! 👍🏿
Great video and an incredibly impotant topic. Looking forward to the next video in this series!
So well done, great video!
Thanks for this informative video LWIF!
As you say, reduce, reuse then recycle as the last option. Shopping at a farmers market for food in the US means less packaging. Choosing not to buy prepared food means less plastic. These are the kinds of things we can consider in our own lives.
This treaty you mention gives me hope. I also appreciate how you discussed the topic from different vantage points. This issue isn’t always straightforward nor black and white, and you illustrated that brilliantly.
This is a great video. As a westerner living in Japan, the amount of plastic present on every day produce is concerning but it's a surprise that the sources show that Japan produces less plastic waste per capita than the UK. As for my family we have our milk delivered by a milkman in glass which then get returned and reused, and we simply don't buy drinks in bottles, and stick to tap water. I do seem to have started a small thermos bottle collection :) I'd love to hear what ideas you have for reducing plastic consumption in Japan.
In Regina, SK the city hall banned plastic bags, and I've notice a lot more people are using reusable bags now! Reusable bags are great and sturdy too. Great video Greg!!!
What's SK? Can't be South Korea, but I can't think of another country abbreviated to SK
I see so many people using the reusable bags for single-use purposes. They have banned the sale of single use plastic but instead of carrying their bags and reusing them, many just buy a new “reusable” bag when they go shopping and later use it as a rubbish bag, it completely defeats the purpose and is more environmentally harmful than single-use plastic bags were.
@@lilypad2 SK is for Saskatchewan, a province in Canada.
@@Entertainment- Yeah, sometimes total bans can backfire. I personally like charging for bags. I always take reusable bags whenever I go shopping, but it's good to have a backup option that's not a bulkier reusable bag for that odd time I don't have one on me.
@@LifeWhereImFrom Yeah...we already collected 10 "reusable" cotton bags ....regarding CO2, this is the worse option....
This video could not have come out at a better time! I’m a member of the Japanese Honor Society at my university and members have to create a presentation in Japanese each semester. this semester I chose to talk about recycling in Japan :) I’ve always been fascinated by recycling and I wish Americans / Texans cared more.
知らなかったリサイクルのことを教えてくれてありがとうございます！皆さんにインスピレーションを与えられるように頑張ります♻️
I love your videos! You are such a great narrator and the tone and pace of your videos soothes my soul ❤
I'm glad that this excellent video gets into the complexities and often counter-intuitive facts of actually recycling plastics. Too many people treat plastic recycling as an across-the-board good idea, but plastic recycling often makes no environmental sense. As this video discusses, numerous studies have shown that the complexities of sorting, cleaning and reprocessing plastic materials are often more energy-intensive and environmentally damaging than simply burning the plastic and making new plastic. Also, plastic recycling makes no economic sense and only happens if recycling is heavily subsidized by taxes or enforcement. So we wind up subsidizing something that may in fact harm the environment. The only real solution here is for consumers to use less plastic by changing our preferences and behaviors.
Thank you so much for this video. I am Japanese and I am studying environmental engineering in Germany but I am not fully aware of the current situation in Japan. I think these things are really important to know for Japanese as well and I am sure as Japanese most of the Japanese people dont know how plastic is deposed of or treated. I would love to make subtitle for this video in Japanese, so it will be easier to reach japanese, but only if you agree of course :)
Thank you so much again for very informative video!
Amazing to see how things can change quickly, Australia rated very high on this list, in the last year or two we have banned single use plastics everywhere, we are now ranked 72 on the list from being in the top 5 just a short time ago.
In my country (Canada), instead of pouring our resources into better recycling, we just ban inconsistently. Straws and forks? Nope. But individualized wrapped apples in the grocery store? Why not!
I really liked to see countries like Japan and Norway working hard on actual solutions towards reducing plastic waste.
Great video!!!
I think a great way of reducing the carbon emissions of thermally recycling plastic (including recycled bio-plastic and dry bio-waste) is to cook the plastic at a lower temperature and in a lack of oxygen, which causes the plastic to release fuel gasses (burned at the powerplant) and leave behind coal and tar in the reaction chamber, which can be buried in retired coal mines or mixed with crude oil and water as an input to advanced oil refining.
One of your absolute best videos yet! Keep up the great work!
When I was in Japan the tour guide showed us the trash burning facilities which were close to residential areas sometimes - told us that it’s fine because their filtering is so advanced it doesn’t produce any fumes. Not too sure how true it is but sure interesting
It’s possible, they have filters that collect the co2 so most of the smoke is water vapor. You can say it’s similar to catalytic converters in our cars to reduce emissions.
Same problem in the UK. The only plastic you can recycle easily is HDPE and LDPE. This has been going on for decades. Milk bottles, and carrier bags are most commonly used by consumer. Often made into Black waste sacks.
My question is, how much is gained from recycling these bottles (PET) specifically? The reason I ask this is because you feature footage of people using large machines like the tractor and the processing plants that process these bottles...how much fuel is used in processing this recycling? Is the juice worth the squeeze? Or are we spending more than we are getting back in the long term?
Many plastic packing is also caused by unusual humidity I think.☔☔🥵🥵🌨️🌨️
Another reason could be the few poisoning incidents that caused public unrest decades ago.There are still arrests for lacing needles and such.
In the uk we have a single logo which shows up if recyclable and a statement for each component(Body; can be recycled, Lid; check you local recycling centre, Label; currently cannot be recycled as examples of each of the statements). We also have plastic nets for large fruits like oranges, clear bags for fruit like apples, and smaller packs for premium fruit like cherries and grapes. Some fruits are even sold loose, like apples, bananas, pears and such.
Once again a brilliant documentary. Thanks!
I don't have any real numbers to back this up, but I think I produce about twice the amount of plastic waste living in Japan than I did back in Finland. Mind you, this is just the regular plastics from food, I use about 5 times more plastic bottles here due to how the water tastes like. Having a larger fridge and having foods be sold in larger bags at once would help, but I'm stuck with a 20 liter mini fridge and foodstuffs that are meant to only cover what is needed to create a single meal.
You can’t drink tap water in Japan... what’s important is the weight of plastic, not the amount of plastic you use... yes if you’re living in a small apartment in Japan, it would be better to use a mini fridge, that’s why you can’t stock up for a week and stick with buying only small portions of food, which is fine because there’s a lot of marts and convenience stores, but yeah, uses a lot of plastic....
Great video, on an important topic. Like you Greg, I’m cautiously optimistic about the direction things are taking here in Japan. We’ve definitely seen progress over the last 10 years, but is it enough?
In my city in central Japan, we are only allowed to put clean, dry, clearly-marked high grade plastics in “pla-gomi”. Anything messy goes into to “combustible garbage”, where it is burned for energy.
Oh, and something I thought was funny: プラ(PLA) gets auto-transcribed as “Buddha” by TH-cam. 😆
Heck yeah burn that for energy! So smart. Burn baby burn 🔥 C02 is easy to capture with TREES. Plant more Trees!!! 🌳 Trees also cool the globe
@@user-xx7pg3vw9k Problem is that we produce more CO2 that can be captured by plants and contributing further to the human made climate change. Planting trees is a good thing for ecosystems and the climate but right now where we are, cutting down on CO2 and other greenhouse gases is the way to go.
Those exact reverse vending machines are here in Michigan but we don't use them for small bottles, only big plastic 2 liter bottles, cans, and bottles. Interesting to see them across the world!
Japan is super humid. Snacks are gonna be inedible in a half of day if you don’t close the bag properly. Even breads get molds in a couple of days.
Another great video and we'll researched. Thank you.
I will confess, I clicked for that beautiful current-gen Fuso Canter rear loader packer truck in the thumbnail. I'll leave a like and comment though to say thanks for that b-roll
fun fact about plastic pollution in the sea is that most of it is from fishing industry and plastic fishing nets
By weight it was but by sheer number volume it was from runaway trash from river dumping
I have no issues with thermal recycling. It won't end up in a landfill. Seems like a win to me.
It is a pity that "Cellophane" is rarely used. It's made out of plant sap, like aloe vera. Perhaps the outer can be PET, but the inner package should be made of Cellophane.
Thank you Greg for making this video. (Btw I'm wanikani level six, your level is really impressive)
Really well researched and articulated video Greg, thanks for your time and effort!
What I am seeing in the US. The plastic bag tax isn't helping as much as we think. When the plastic bags were free they were much thinner. Now that they cost money they are about 10x thicker. The tax would of worked better if the plastic didn't get larger.
I'm sad to say Australia also did the madness of increasing the plastic bag thickness. The tax is also so small so it isn't changing behaviour much
Excellent Sir! Very informative and educating short video! I thank you very much for that.
Yes, recycling is a way to go, and keeping the environment, water & air clean are the most basic and common sense stuffs we can do, but most people don’t seem to care much here in America since so many cities and environments are so dirty. I do wish they teach kids here (like in Japanese schools there) more usable knowledge instead of politically motivated biases!!!
I guess that depends greatly where you grew up or live now; when I was a kid, we learned a great deal about recycling and waste management, since it was so important to the local ecosystems. I remember multiple assemblies and science classes dedicated to the different aspects at all levels of education. Wish my experience was more widespread!
We can say everything we want about plastic recycling but the only way to reduce plastic pollution right now is reducing the use of plastic.
Your way of explanation is Best. Keep up the Good Work Bro!
Yeah, food waste and CO2 are also a problem. I’m always sickened about the people who live in a cool and dry climate blaming the usage of plastics for groceries.
Another Great Video. I love your Videos.
Though in Japan they are putting lot of efforts to recycle plastics, efforts are not seen to REDUCE generation of plastics scrap.
They should REFUSE to use the plastics as far as possible.
If usage of plastics is reduced, obviously scrap generation will reduce. Hence, the efforts required for recycling will reduce.
Comparatively this problem is very easy to tackle in country like India, where use of plastics and scrap generation itself is less.
We have a similar 'thermal recycling' plant in my county in America. It generates a lot of the energy needs of the people and also saves space in the landfill!
In Finland we are researching new wood-based materials, essentially liquid-proof carton bottles, to replace plastic bottles in the relatively near future. They could also replace a lot of other forms of plastic packaging in the food industry. They're still in the testing phase, but the signs look promising. There's even some wood-based materials that imitate the transparency of plastic, though at least thus far they aren't sturdy enough to make entire bottles or packages out of them.
The wax-coated paperboard beverage cartons have already been established going back to 100+ yrs ago. It was the most common container for milk from the 1960s thru 1980s (post glass bottle era, and pre plastic bottle era).
@@2sday538 We've got those and use them in abundance. But they aren't suited for nearly every type of liquid; alcoholic, carbonated and so on. And a large portion of modern carton containers include a thin layer of plastic on the inside due to other chemical interactions with the carton itself, if the beverage is meant for a long shelf life.
The materials on the horizon are designed to change all that. Superficially a lot of them actually resemble plastic, but will decompose, albeit not as quickly as regular carton would.
@@Lightice1Bioplastic made of plants with high protein content. Yup I heard of it. In can decompose when buried in ground
Thanks for this video!!! It's a great summary - I've been really disinhearted to see so many people online spread "recycling is a myth!!" which, on it's own without the information and takeaways you share, leads to the defeatist conclusion: "so there's no point recycling" - a conclusion that is harmful.
Really, we _all_ need to be more responsible with our stream of use - reduce, reuse, then recycle - while also having our governments enact useful regulation for improvements to benefit our home planet.
Our current situation with the pollution and global warming crises make me think millenials and gen z need to take a serious page out of the book of our parents and grandparents in terms of reusing, saving, and reducing consumption in general. Somewhere in the middle between our generational attitudes on consumption and use of items would be useful - no need to hoard, but no need to toss and buy that new _thing_ just because some time has passed, and when there are other alternatives to consider (eg, can you still use it/do you really need to get rid of it? Are there other purposes it can fulfill? If you really need a replacement, can you find a replacement refurbished or second hand? Etc)
Great video, Greg!!!
2:09 Here where you are comparing the weight of plastic wrapped produce in Canada, and point out that the Canadian plastic is heavier by percentage of the fruit, you need to also point out that in Canada the majority of grocery stores do not wrap most fruits and vegetables in extra plastic. You are kind of implying that Japan is doing a better job here, when this type of packaging is less common overall in a regular Canadian grocery store. While Kirkland/Costco stuff is notorious for over packaging, that goes for all Costco's, Japan and Canada included. While in Canada you may see the softer fruits, like you showed, grapes and kiwi's wrapped in a plastic box, often those are in plastic bags, or you pick the amount you want and put in a bag or you can choose not use a plastic bag. You showed a Kirkland box from croissants for Canada, I'm going to assume you could have the same Kirkland box of croissants in a Japanese Costco. If I were to go to any of the grocery stores chains in my city, I would get the croissants from the bakery, usually in a paper bag or soft cardboard box. You didn't pose this as a perfect scientific test of plastics from the two countries but it was extremely biased in favour of Japan, like you were making an excuse for the amount as being okay as it was lighter.
15:15 You said "because convenient packaging is considered good customer service in Japan..." This is an idea that needs to stop everywhere, Japan and the whole world. Too often the appeal of a product is how it is presented. Would people be as impressed and enjoy their purchase the same if it wasn't presented in the layers of plastic presentation? Actually sometimes, not, it is the packaging that presents the item as more special than it is. Watch any "unboxing" video and you will see under the layers of packaging is a fairly neutral item.
Reduce consumption first, then reuse, then recycle.
This channel is a pro-japan channel so of course he will try to glorify Japan...
Btw, the reason for the extra plastic is because fruit is a LUXURY in Japan, if you look at their fruit prices online, you will know that 1 kg of apples cost something like 8-10 USD and oranges can go up to 20 dollars a kilo, so naturally, since it's such a luxurious thing to eat (Japanese incomes are 60% of the ones in the US and the standard of living is much lower), they try to make it seem as appealing as possible
I remember read local newspaper that Japan and other countries export their plastic junk to my country and other third world countries.
He also didn't mention that Japan is the largest exporter of plastic waste. "The recycling rate only applies to what remains in Japan."
In 2020, Japan exported 820,000 tonnes of plastic waste to South East Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan - roughly 46% of the total.
@@sekar9901 Here's the export stats www.statista.com/statistics/1193746/japan-plastic-waste-export-volume/#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20the%20export%20volume,countries%20banned%20plastic%20waste%20imports. There was so much data I left out. The export stats weren't on purpose. Looking at the trend after China banned the import of plastics, it would have actually made Japan look good if I would have included them, as they've dropped the number from 1,431,000 tonnes in 2017 to 623,000 tonnes in 2021. It really was more of a matter of having so much data that I sometimes didn't know what to leave in vs. cut.
For 2:09, I was actually trying to get the most heavily packaged fruits in Japan to compare them to something that is also heavily packaged in Canada. I was actually trying to find stats on Canada's single-use plastic usage, but could never find anything good (if you do, please let me know). I did find that Canada uses 125 kg of plastic per person, but I think that's overall plastic, and not single-use plastic oceana.ca/en/press-releases/drowning-plastic-new-report-shows-canada-contributes-disproportionately/#:~:text=Canada%20uses%204.6%20million%20metric,million%20metric%20tonnes%20by%202030. My point wasn't to say that Japan is doing great in comparison to Canada. Rather it was to point out that it can be hard to tell how much is being used.
But also important would be to see what happens with that plastic. Even if Japan's is less weight, it's most likely being thermally recycled, which means it's not being made into plastic again. With those clamshells in Canada that weigh more, are they being made into new plastics? I don't know. I was going down that rabbit hole a bit but got stuck at the point where my municipality says they collect and recycle it using a third-party, but I don't know what that third-party actually does.
For 15:15 I agree that the idea of packaging as customer service should change. Did I not basically say that in the video? "So all the excessive use of packaging involved with gift giving may be able to be cut down if the idea of what a well presented gift can change."
At the end I said that "That being said, everything being equal, reducing usage is always the best." So I agree, that reducing, reusing, and then recycling is the proper order.
Anyways, the point of the videos isn't to say Japan is doing great with plastics. It's more to lay out the current state of plastics in Japan and say that the whole world needs to be doing a better job and I think the most significant changes will occur when governments around the world put good laws and standards in place.
0:27 don't forget the anime "Plastic Memories"
Thanks for another great video.
Your channel is not one of many that only talk about traveling and beauty of Japan. Digging into other subjects matter in these advance society is really interesting. Your research, I must say is quite good on every videos. In justice system side, I always heard Japan have highest rate of conviction. Do you any interest in making video about Jalan justice system in future?
What's wrong with the high conviction rate?
@@SC-jt3uf I didn't say anything wrong with it. I'm interested in reason of its success.
@@dimbose9229 The answer is simple.
Because they do a thorough investigation and only arrest people who are really guilty.
Plastic waste in the environment from developed countries is not an issue. Proper disposal and dumping in a landfill means it is not polluting the ocean or the atmosphere.
Countries where they just dump their rubbish anywhere and let it float out to sea are the real problem. Also the plastic waste in our oceans is mostly discarded plastic fishing tackle like lines and nets, not household rubbish.
Burning the plastic is just adding CO2 to the atmosphere which would have been sequestered for centuries as plastic.
Plastic waste from developed countries is also problem. As you pointed out the majority of plastic waste in the oceans is from the fishing industry and a recent study found that the vast majority of plastic waste in the North Pacific came from the industrial fishing of developed countries: Japan contributing the single largest amount at 34%. Sadly one need only visit a Japanese beach off-season to see the huge amounts of both fishing and land-based plastic that litters them, quite shocking for those who imagine Japan is pristine and litter free. All countries struggle with plastic pollution and global action needs to be taken to control it.
When I visited Tokyo pre-pandemic. It was nice to have extra plastics or paper pouches for gifting souvenirs back home but at the same time I was disappointed because some of them I was buying for myself and I did not ask for extra packaging. It gave me the impression that Japan is using a lot of plastic
Nice video Greg. I work for a company in the U.S. that has invented a chemical recycling technology that can convert PET bottles back to a monomer state and then turn them into higher value and performance PBT. It is mostly used in the consumer electronics industry today but still, hundreds of millions of bottles have gone through the process 🎉
Does the process use alkaline hydrolysis and ball milling or catalytic degradation and is at room temp ?
I never expect Any solution to be perfect or solve everything. Every step brings in closer.
As soomeone who works in the plastic industry. I would like to see more studies focus on the end consumer and how they handle their plastic. HDPE jugs (milk, tea, ec) can be turned into plastic retail bags but the average consumer throws them in the trash. Other kinds of plastic like PET can be turned into new bottles for soda etc. But again, they are tossed in the trash.
Plastic manufactureres like us do put a lot out into the world but we also reclaim and recycle over 90% of our own waste products. The consumer is closer to 1% or less on average.
That may be where we need to start. The reclaim of closer to 80 or 90% of consumer collected materials would change the statistics on the various disposal, conversion, and reuse methods.
Do baby nappies count as single use? How many a day over how much time? Where do they go?
Tech gear.. even a tiny sd card or USB drive has several 100 % more plastic (and paper) packaging than necessary. All that extra needs to be created, handled, shipped...etc..
commenting before watching the video: yes, yes it absolutely does. I dont live there but I watch a lot of vlogs in Japan and holy mother nature there is just SO MUCH PLASTIC STUFF, and also the whole world's got a plastic problem, so yes, Japan have a plastic problem
editing after watching the video: I'm sad (but not surprised) that I was right, but I'm glad to see that Japan is trying to take action, even if slowly. gives me hope things can work in the end and that solutions will be found faster and faster
Thanks Greg, for yet another great video that compiles and brings nuance to a discussion I've been having for years with people curious about Japan! xD One more to use when trying to unravel the complexity of it.
You generally have two camps of people on this. One side, people who have heard about the complexity of trash separation for recycling, plus perhaps a doc on that zero waste village that "recycles" "everything", and thinks Japan is a paradise of recycling or something, and the other camp who heard about double and triple packaging of Japanese products and/or how a ton of trash gets burnt and finds it all appalling... it is often hard to explain how none of it is black and white, and reality is more or less in between like in several other developed nations.
But I think there are some models in Japan that are worth thinking about and adopting, sometimes I wonder why it still didn't happen. One is the standardization of product packaging, particularly for companies that already operate in Japan (which is basically most, as it has basically become a global oligopoly), they have no excuses on not knowing how to do it.
My understanding is that while not perfect, particularly for PET bottles, Japan evolved recycling efforts a whole lot in the past couple of decades. And it's not only about recycling... in more general terms it's also about usability, education, awareness, culture and more stuff along those lines.
Standardization and bottles that are clearly made with recycling in mind, with care put into how to clean and break them apart for recycling, by itself educates people towards better disposal practices... which doesn't happen in my country because bottles continue coming in all shapes, consistency and sizes, with paper and plastic labels completely glued to the bottles with zero consideration on how to take them off, an assortment of caps of all materials and qualities imaginable, no standardized shape, etc. You can see from the offset that it wasn't made with recycling in mind, and so people just don't give a damn.
In fact, by comparison, the standard vending machine Japanese tea bottle is so well made (in comparison to local stuff) that I often see people using it as a reusable bottle... every now and then I get some in an import shop and it becomes a bottle to take on trips and whatnot. The bottles of stuff bought locally are so crappy that it often ends up in a state you can't really clean up and reuse.
The whole idea that bottled beverage manufacturers needs to keep changing and messing with bottle designs as a marketing ploy has to die in the west. Well, what is left of it in Japan also has to go, because I know that despite heavy standardization, Japan also has a bit of that leftover.
I also think that for quite a few places, there needs to be some consideration about controlled burning of trash with carbon capture methods and whatnot. While it might sound bad at first because of emissions, it's a whole lot worse if all this trash ends up in a landfill which contaminates the water table and rivers, and all of it ends up breaking down and becoming a source of greenhouse gases anyways, while also adding up to ecosystem damages and microplastics problem. For countries like Japan where there is a lack of natural resources for energy production, and a whole lot of emissions and costs involved in importing fossil fuel energy anyways, at least for me it seems more than logical to burn trash for fuel. It's not a perfect solution, and it might not sound great, but it sure sounds better than just exporting trash and importing even more fossil fuels to fill the gap...
I do agree though that there should be better ways to handle some types of packaging... I do like the practice for cleanliness and food portioning reasons, plus the entire culture of gift giving, but I guess it's time to start applying more forcefully usage of alternative materials, or reusable stuff, rather than just keep using mounds of plastic that will end up being burned away.
In any case, I'm not in any position to criticize or complain. My developing nation still didn't get even close to such considerations. Trash ends up everywhere here, even well educated people have no idea how little of our trash gets recycled, in general people also have no idea how to separate recyclable trash from the rest properly, we are nowhere close to having an uniform system for it, there is little respect for standards and labeling regarding materials and how to recycle them, and our landfills are all problematic in their own ways... I won't even start talking about industrial trash, commercial, and stuff like mining because it'd be an endless complaint stream. :P
The only thing that saves us from going the complete opposite way when it comes to environmentalism and fighting climate change is that most of our power generation, thanks to the lucky geographical conditions we have, already leans heavily towards renewables. Lucky for us, because if it depended on government and people's will, we'd be contributing increasingly more and more to worsening Climate Change, and against the environment in general. But there is a lot more to be done, and it needs to start by taking away the idiot president in charge, replacing with someone that at least doesn't put industrial cattle farming and whatnot above environmental concerns. Realistically though, even if we elected the most radical environmentalist possible, there is only so much that could be done to solve all the environmental issues here... but I think a proper start would be regulating things properly and forcing huge industries to commit to better practices or start paying all the fines they should already be paying for environmental damages.
Thanks for the great comment! Glad to see you appreciate all the complexity of the topic.
Here in Sweden, you can find bottles with the text "panta mig igen" or "recycle me again". Those
are bottles that have already been recycled at least once and made into another bottle, not
sure how many times the "same" bottle can go through that cycle. Not all bottles had these
texts added to their label, only some had.
I think you should do a colab with paolo from tokyo! both of your contents are very interesting and informative