During my stay in Japan this past January, I experienced two very different sides of the country -- beginning with the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, and wrapping up on an organic farm in the countryside. Contrasting these two environments with each other and comparing them to the lifestyle I was accustomed to in the United States deepened my understanding of what it means to live a "sustainable lifestyle." Here were some of the eco-friendly observations that I made in Japan.
Carrying trash with you ~ Mindfulness concerning waste
Right away, I discovered that public trash cans were a rare sight to see in Tokyo. When you have trash to throw out, whether a napkin or an empty bag of potato chips, you have to carry that waste with you until you get back home/to your hotel.
One might expect that the absence of waste baskets would only result in more litter appearing on the streets, but Tokyo actually proved the opposite — Tokyo, Japan is one of the most immaculate cities in the world when it comes to keeping the streets free from pollution. I was astonished at how clear the streets were… it felt almost like a paradox being that it was a city.
Infrastructure that prompts people to carry around their garbage additionally puts them in a situation where they have to actively consider their waste habits. The United States makes it way too convenient to forget about trash. As soon as Americans are done with an item, we can throw it away in the closest trash can we find and never think about it again. This type of mentality encourages over-consumption because we never have to confront the impact of the trash we produce.
When I had to carry around my garbage in Japan, I found myself reconsidering packaged purchases — “Do I really want to have to carry around this clunky to-go container with me for the next six hours?” Carrying around trash also brought my attention to how quickly garbage accumulates. Before I knew it, my backpack was brimming with candy wrappers, water bottles, crumpled napkins and receipts. At the end of each day, I would collectively throw all of it throw away and stand in front of the garbage can feeling the same three things. Confusion, guilt, and shame.
Challenge: Find a box. For one week, collect every wrapper, coffee cup, shopping bag, straw, and any other object that you would want to throw away. Put each item into your box. At the end of the week, you will have a good idea of how much packaging waste you are generating per week. If you want to dive deeper, weigh your items on a scale and multiply by 52 to discover roughly how much packaging waste you generate every year.
Provide your own towel – Swapping single-use products for reusable ones
If you go into pretty much any bathroom in the United States, you will find paper towels to dry your hands with. According to an article in The Atlantic, the U.S. spends nearly as much on paper towels as every other country in the world combined. So what does everyone do to dry their wet hands? In Japan, many people bring their own hand towel around with them. If carrying a towel around feels too inconvenient, there's always the options of letting your hands air dry or just wiping them on your pants. If everyone in the United States brought their own towel or just let their hands air dry, we could save up to 7.8 billion pounds worth of paper waste material in the United States alone, every single year!!!
Challenge: Keep a hand towel with you in your purse or bag to use when you go to the restroom (or let your hands air dry). If you are notorious for using 3, 4, or even 5 paper towels to dry your hands, take baby steps and try to limit yourself to just taking one!
Embrace the cold – Saving energy one degree at a time
People who know me well know that genetics gave me the horrible misfortune of bad blood circulation. In other words, I am freezing constantly. So when I found out that I would be “winter camping” in temperatures that dropped below-freezing for two weeks, I knew I had to bid farewell to any idea of a comfort zone.
Was the experience painful? Yes. Was it irritating? Absolutely. Was it worth it? One-hundred percent.
If living without heating taught me one thing, it was that we can adapt. I recently heard a quote that said "there's no such thing as bad weather, there's only bad clothing," and this was a truth I learned to live by. I went to bed in my winter coat and snow pants, with a hat pulled down over my face. I learned how to quickly heat myself up by engaging in activities like chores or a few push ups. Learning how to embrace the cold was key. Instead of treating the chill like a demonic force that was out to ruin my life, I allowed myself to truly feel the cold. Suddenly, miraculously, the cold became something I stopped thinking actively about.
So what is the point?
I do not intend to convince you that living without heat is a good idea. But, what if everyone turned down their thermostats by one degree? By putting on another layer instead of immediately using gas/electricity, we could save vast amounts of energy without the fear of sacrificing comfort.
Food Waste – Utilizing the entire product
At the Asian Rural Institute, our group cooked and ate only ingredients that came from the farm itself. Because everything was organically grown on the farm, we could not bare to have anything go to waste. Leftover carrot pieces? Throw them into some vegetable broth. Leftover rice after the meal? Put it in the fridge and serve it again tomorrow at breakfast. Potato peelings? Put them into the compost bin so we can use them for fertile soil later.
Coming back home to the United States, I was horrified with myself when I started to prepare steamed broccoli and my old habits tempted me to throw away half of the stem. I couldn't help but think, “why are we trained to only use the ‘best part’ of these foods, when the entire product is good?!” This mentality and practice has to change!
Challenge: When preparing your next meal, I challenge you to use 100% of the food product you are using (excluding the stem/seeds). You got this!!!
Japan had so many lessons to offer for living in a more sustainable world. I hope you enjoyed this article about consumption. For more information on the Asian Rural Institute, check out their website here.
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