Japan to reduce plastic waste from April

including combs, toothbrushes, razors, hairbrushes, clothes hangers and garment covers,

They're going to substitute wood, leather and bone as materials for those items? Cool. Better to focus on the wrapping-packaging industry, which is by far the major source of plastic refuse in my household, and I suspect all households in Japan.

Is this some kind of joke? A simple trip to the 7/11 here ends up burdening me with enough plastic to power a small power plant.

Jland is hell bent over making money charging you extra for plastics. Stated with plastic shopping bags. If they are going to reduce get rid of Saran Wrap

Japan needs to solve its wrapping compulsion. Why does something that's already perfectly wrapped have to be put in a plastic bag and then placed in a "regi bukuro"?

Daiso has a tape loop playing in its stores about not wasting plastic when EVERYTHING you buy there is single or double wrapped.

The cost of disposal needs to be added to the cost of production. If plastic bags were 100 yen instead of 5 yen and those silly flimsy bags were banned, there would be a huge reduction in plastic.

Is that April this year? Does this mean no more individually plastic wrapped candy, chocolates, cookies, fruits and veges? They are still using polystyrene foam for meat packaging, which was phased out in the west over twenty years ago due to HFCs. I’ll believe it when I see it.

I don't buy the snacks here in Japan because most of it is plastic bags inside plastic bags inside plastic bags and all you get when you buy these items is a peanut with a lot of plastic bags inside plastic bags inside plastic bags.

So all grocery shopping we do where they give us plastic bags we keep and reuse. Some for food waste, some for just garbage. Also, if you travel they are great for wrapping multiple things like bottles (think yakiniku sauce you can only get in Japan).

And Japan seems to have an affliction for plastic. This is a good thing.

About time. So slow from a supposedly advanced nation.

Late to the party as usual, Japan. When I get my groceries delivered, eggs are in one plastic bag, bread in another; and the same goes for my juice boxes, ham etc. I always end up with 5~6 plastic bags when all the items can fit perfectly in two. It's madness.

Then there's Japan's love of individually wrapping each item before putting it in a box, which is then wrapped in plastic, and put into a plastic bag. Why? Just...why?

From what I saw on the TV news and from reading this article, it doesn't mention packaging. Most of the industries it mentions are service or retail but not production. In other words, you might see a decrease in plastic bags at the super market or convenience store register but the item you buy will still have all the multi-layers of plastic packaging. I hope I'm wrong...

I thought Japan was the worst country generating plastic waste. However, the fact is as follows, according to the attached site.

Par capita plastic waste generation (kg/year)

USA : 130

UK : 98

Germany : 81

Japan : 38

China :15

https://www.nap.edu/resource/other/dels/plastics-in-the-ocean/

Last year stores started charging for plastic shopping bags and the prices were 3 to 5 JPY per bag, some charged as high 10 JPY which is a complete RIP OFF.

Now why can't the Japanese government just do what some other nation did and that is to make it illegal to use certain plastic products instead of dancing around the subject.

and by the way McDonalds is still using PLASTC STRAWS which is known to cause great harm to sea mammals and animals.

Why wait ?!?! Start NOW !! Start TODAY !!

No Secret. Of course, the costs will be put back on the consumers.

The convenience stores are the worst, they just throw the plastic at you without even asking if you need it. Like if a buy a carton of juice (a no plastic option), the stupid cashiers will take it and immediately tape a plastic straw to it unless you do something to stop them, and then hand it to you with a plastic wrapped wet tissue on top of it. It’s infuriating because it puts the onus on you to have to actively resist their efforts to turn a product that has no plastic waste associated with it into one that has a lot of plastic waste.

From April…….always the magical from end of March to April.

Why do Japanese people always have to time it during these times?

Just do it as soon as possible, quit wasting time as usual.

Japanese hotel razors are an absolute joke and a certain way to slice your face (or legs). Bring your own.

The Pet bottle “caps” are collected and processed separately but local collections REFUSE the rings (made of the same material) left attached to the bottles. They, along with Marmite, Vegemite, jelly and peanut butter lids (made of the same material as Pet bottle caps) are also refused. What’s up with all that, JAPAN ??

This may not be that important a measure in comparison of how much plastic is actually wasted in every day life, but at least reduces the contradiction of only limiting one or two obvious sources while promoting other as wasteful.

Can they do anything about reducing snack packages? Must everything be individually wrapped, in a plastic tray, inside another wrapping, inside a box? It's an awful lot of garbage for six cookies.

The oversized outer-packaging @Yasuragi 11:35 benefits the manufacturer by continuing to occupy the max shelve space in supermarkets thus, squeezing out emerging competitors AND, disguising their efforts to reduce the volume and size of the actual contents. - Corporate Japan ‘Shrinkflation’ in FULL effect.

@Yasuragi 11:35am: “Can they reduce snack packages? …everything individually wrapped, in a plastic tray, inside another wrapping, inside a box? It's an awful lot of garbage for 6 cookies.” -

Last year stores started charging for plastic shopping bags and the prices were 3 to 5 JPY per bag, some charged as high 10 JPY which is a complete RIP OFF.

Ironically, the beneficiary of the new rule are companies making plastic bags. We reused shopping bags for waste disposal, but now we have to actually buy them. Meanwhile companies kept double-wrapping everything.

5 small sausages in a large plastic filled with air.

Oh, yes. Know that brand well @drlucifer 2:43pm. And they tape 2 packages together at DOUBLE the price and advertise it as a “Special Value”.

*- @drlucifer 2:43pm: “5 small sausages in a large plastic filled with air.”*

Congratulations Japan, you’ve finally caught up to the rest of the world on this front.

Stop wrapping vegetables in plastic. How rediculous is it to see a banana plastic wrapped.

The Pacific Ocean seems to be full of clear cellophane plastic wrapping, the sort that used to encase cigarette packets. So, all plastic wrapping should be phased out and banned.

The cabinet approval came after legislation was enacted in June last year 

I’m not well versed in Japanese lawmaking, but does the Cabinet make the laws or the Diet?

And does it take six months for the Cabinet to approve or disapprove of the laws the Diet enacts?

Business operators that fail to meet the requirement will be advised or ordered to do so. The new law also has a provision for the imposition of fines for noncompliance.

*Eliminate the part about being Advised or Ordered to do so and skip straight to the Fines. Make them large fines that will get the companies attention and make it illegal to pass along the cost of the fines to the consumer

Japan made it mandatory for stores to charge for plastic bags from July 2020. While related marine pollution remains a serious issue, the country's plastic waste totaled about 8 million tons in that year.

*8 million tons too much. How about encouraging the use of cloth reusable bags. If you simply must use plastic make it easy to recycle them (same with paper bags).

In the convenience store industry, which uses a huge amount of plastic for bento boxed meal containers, some operators have already introduced wooden cutlery or have made holes in cutlery handles to reduce the amount of plastic.

So we cut a hole in the plastic to get around the law. Wow, just wow. Talk about missing the point entirely. Seems they just want to never get away from cheap plastic cutlery that will just be thrown away. How about recycling it instead or reusing it? Same with the wooden cutlery.