I live on the Honshu island. Really getting sick of Japan's obsession with plastic, specifically with food and goods but also clothes and pretty much everything I see is made of some form of plastic. The trash I accumulate just from packaging is insane, and it's so hard to find clothes and home goods that aren't polyester, polypropylene, etc. I know this is kind of becoming the trend worldwide, but I wonder if the level I've seen in Japan is the same on the Okinawa islands? Thanks
by Professional-Cow7879
12 comments
It’s the same here.
I’m not sure what you would expect to be different? It is the same country afterall and not particularly far away.
Used to be worse. When I arrived in Okinawa a decade ago it was a challenge to buy a pint of milk from a conbini and not also walk out with a plastic bag, plastic straw, and disposable plastic cutlery set. You had to actively refuse it. *Everything* went in a plastic bag. At least they ask and charge now. But yeah it’s still bad — the Japanese can’t shake their penchant for nice plastic packaging on everything.
What other country doesn’t also use a lot of plastic?
Yes Japan uses a lot of thin plastic wrapping but the overall use of plastic isn’t exactly higher than a lot of western countries?
Yes.
Yeah having lived over 10 years on both I’d say it’s pretty much the same.
YES! Same country.
Maybe its time for you to leave to wherever you came from if you hate it here so much
It’s ironic because there are no garbage cans either. I just avoided plastic. Even ski areas don’t have a good way to refill water bottles. You just put 140 yen into a vending machine and toss the bottle when you’re done.
Okinawa is definitely not just another place in Japan the way, like, Saga or Tottori are other places in Japan, but that’s not the discussion we need to have in a post about single-use plastic.
You know Okinawa is Japan, right?
Well, considering they have the most sophisticated recycling process in the world. It’s not that big of a deal. America has more plastic waste than Japan by FAR