My next three posts will be consumption/environmentally-themed.
Today I am disposing of my second bag of combustible trash since arriving in Japan in early August. Living alone has presented me with the unique opportunity to track all of my consumption through utility bills and the number of bags of trash and recyclables I fill. It's easy to compare month-to-month progress (or lack of) in reduction. I took out my first bag of trash on 10/13, which was about two months after arriving here. This bag is going out 12/18, just more than two months later. I am hyper-aware of everything that goes in the combustible bag, which is almost solely plastic bags from loaves of bread and vegetables and the foil packaging of single-serve spaghetti sauce. In an attempt to reduce those disposals, I am working towards relying almost solely on bread I bake, which has already reduced my weekly bread order from five/six loaves (the "loaves" only have six slices - yes, i eat a lot of bread) to just one. Replacing store-bought bread doesn't eliminate the waste, but shifts it to friendlier paper flour bags. I am also trying [successfully] to eat less spaghetti and to add a lot of tomatoes and onions to the sauce to get two dinners out of the single-serve packet.
Our garbage is disposed of in bags that we purchase from our store. Though they are cheap (15 cents apiece), this method provides incentives to reduce trash. My experience in the U.S. is that a weekly trash can service is paid with a flat fee, whether the can is filled or not. Our bags come in two or three sizes. I accidentally bought the medium bags my first time, not realizing how long trash would build up while waiting for the bag to fill. So I purchased the small bags as well and use the larger ones only for plastic. The small bags are a couple inches taller than an American paper grocery bag with about the same girth.
I have a fair amount of plastic waste. I've separated my plastics into two bags: one with my yogurt and egg containers and one with everything else. Both are about half-full. I hope to get a yogurt maker from a secondhand store and work something out with the owners of a flock of chickens I know about.
I have disposed of three shoe boxes of paper waste, which I am happy about (for four months). I mostly bring home my paper waste from work, too, so I don't cheat myself of actual consumption.
Stay tuned for an upcoming post on why my separation of recyclables and combustibles is meaningless.
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2 comments:
I don't put plastic bags and foil in my combustible trash. Someone told me that combustible means paper and food only. Maybe each city is different?
If you prefer, you can get yogurt in a paper container instead of plastic. The single size servings come in plastic, but you can get a larger container made out of paper.
hey, thanks for this! i was actually wondering what was supposed to go in my combustibles bag. if i could eliminate plastic bags and foil, it would take me two years to fill a bag (except for my paper waste, which i currently keep separate).
i do order the larger sized yogurts (520ml, i think?), but i've tried all of the offerings in my catalog and unfortunately they are all packaged in plastic... maybe it'll be moot if i can get a yogurt maker, though!
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