From October 1st most of the grocery stores on Okinawa have begun charging for plastic bags. This is to reduce waste and CO2 pollution.
Apparently, Okinawa uses almost 400 million plastic bags per year. That is a lot of bags!!! They hope to reduce plastic bags use by 80%, which would cut 18,700 tons of CO2.
If you bring your own bag, then you don't have to buy a plastic one.
This should be good for the environment and perhaps people will waste less (they are notorious for over-wrapping stuff here). Also it seems to have been a boon for the "My Bag" industry.
So, I don't mind except when I forget to bring our "My Bag"; then I have to pay an extra 3 yen per bag (about 2 cents).
After all, God did tell Adam to take care of the earth (Genesis 2:15).
1 comment:
I keep one in my car for emergencies and 2 in my home for planned outings. I also have one for bentos at work! I am starting to get carried away - I'm thinking of asking the bento places if they can make me bentos in "my box"!
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