00:00Hey guys, we'll probably put this video on our nature and environment in Japan playlist for reasons that will slowly
00:06become obvious.
00:07So when we go shopping in Japan, almost everything is wrapped in plastic.
00:13So even our fruit and vegetables.
00:16We try to avoid getting things with plastic as much as possible, but it's really hard.
00:21Snack foods wrapped individually.
00:24So we try and buy a bag of snacks like this for the family and they all come in little
00:28individual bags.
00:31So there's probably a number of reasons for it.
00:34Possibly Japanese people eat things in small portions, so they want to keep everything fresh.
00:40Also Japanese people are usually fairly concerned with cleanliness.
00:44So the individual wrapping might have something to do with that as well.
00:48The other thing might be that most things are sort of individually wrapped, so that's what they think is normal.
00:54So that's sort of what they expect.
00:57But it does seem wasteful.
00:58And as a family, when we buy things like this, that's rice crackers.
01:02You know, we don't need them individually wrapped.
01:04We'd be happy to buy a bag of rice crackers and just put them in a bowl or put them
01:08in a Tupperware container or something.
01:12But most of these sort of things come individually wrapped.
01:14Not everything.
01:15Not everything, of course.
01:16But a lot of things.
01:18Things like chocolates are as well.
01:22Individual wraps.
01:24So obviously this produces a lot of plastic.
01:30Fruit and vegetables.
01:34They brought in a law in Japan a while back that supermarkets and convenience stores and that sort of thing
01:41have to actually charge customers for the plastic bags at the register.
01:45And that's encouraged people to have a sort of a carry bag, like a cloth carry bag to put the
01:49groceries in.
01:50A little bit.
01:51We don't.
01:52You see both still.
01:53But some people have their cloth carry bags.
01:55We do.
01:56So that was a good idea.
01:57And that's probably saved a lot of unnecessary plastic.
02:01But you still see things like this.
02:03How's this?
02:04Tyres wrapped in plastic.
02:06Why?
02:09Why do you need to have your tyres wrapped in plastic?
02:12Isn't that amazing?
02:14Why?
02:16It doesn't seem to make any sense, does it?
02:20Keep them fresh, maybe?
02:23But here's another one.
02:24These guys are buying a couple of ton of gravel.
02:28And they've gone to the home centre and the gravel is sold in 20 kilo bags.
02:32And we see this all the time too.
02:34Big building sites where they have their gravel delivered in 20 kilogram plastic bags.
02:41Isn't it amazing?
02:44So wasteful.
02:45I mean, a lot of countries, they'd just put a big scoop in the back of the truck, wouldn't they?
02:50So then what we have to do in the house is as we collect this plastic, we have to actually
02:54put it in clear plastic bags.
02:58So you've actually got to buy clear plastic bags to put your plastic waste in.
03:02Because it has to be in clear plastic bags so they can see it's just plastic when you take it
03:07to the collection point.
03:10So this is probably two or three months of our plastic.
03:16So again, wasteful.
03:17You've got to buy plastic bags to put your plastic waste in.
03:20Isn't that ridiculous?
03:20And then we've got to take it to this collection point and put it in there.
03:25And they take it off and recycle it.
03:26So as you guys know, Japan's very careful with dividing rubbish into different categories and recycling and that sort of
03:32thing.
03:32So that's good.
03:33That is good.
03:34But still so wasteful.
03:37And what we've got there is that's the minimum.
03:41You know, we do our best to use as little as possible.
03:43But that's the result.
03:44So loads of waste plastic in Japan.
03:48More videos coming soon.
03:50You know, we do our best to use as little as possible as possible.
03:51Bye.
03:51World cómo.
03:51Yes.
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