Retailers step up efforts to slash plastic shopping bag use

Friday 05th December, 06:01 AM JST

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Apsara at 08:48 PM JST - 6th December

Alpahaape, by bringing a bag to the supermarket/combini 80% of the times I have been for the last 2 years or so, I would say I have "not used" up to about 500 bags- how can the effect on the environment of my couple of cloth bags be even close to the effect those 500 plastic bags would have had?

Sure, recyclable bags use resources when they are produced, but the whole point is that they do not end up in landfills and are used over and over again- it's very obvious that the recyclable bag has less of an impact on the environment, I would have thought.

As for bagging garbage, the 20 percent of times I don't take a bag for whatever reason I get plastic bags, and those are my garbage bags. Before I started using a recyclable bag for shopping I had a cupboard full of plastic bags- far more than I could use for garbage.

I don't see anything wrong with charging for bags- the small store near where I live charges just 1 yen per bag, but it makes people think, and far more turn down a bag there than do at the combini next door.
flammenwerfer at 08:53 PM JST - 6th December

Yeah, how about the packs of gum

the individual wrappers on gum have a purpose: the considerate and sanitary disposal of the gum once you have finished using it.
Sarge at 08:57 PM JST - 6th December

"combat global warming"

There's no combating global warming. Mother Nature is going to do what she is going to do. All we can do is deal with it.

Anyway, I hear this winter is going to be colder than last winter. What's up with that?
Smythe at 05:35 AM JST - 7th December

I have been using shopping bags avaliable at most stores & avaliabe at around $1.00 or $1.40 her in Canada.

Was at a grocery store to bump into the manager, a friend of mine & Gun Club member (we usally have a few words with each other for he is also a m/cist like myself though not into fast trotting sportbikes), getting a lecture from some "save the world" woman that as he was pointing out so many have left their bags at home.

I was stopped so asked me & pointed out I have two but another two were at home. Sort of end of her lecture.

I have no idea of what the answer is.
RakishGadfly at 06:47 AM JST - 7th December

It's a good idea - I use two here in Canada when I go shopping. I also like the fact that Starbucks gives me a small discount for bringing in my own mug when I stop in before my daily commute, but here in Toronto some fascists were proposing to make it mandatory to charge much extra for folks asking for coffee cups. That's a bit extreme.
Smythe at 12:49 PM JST - 7th December

Wish there was a small discout if one ONLY used their own shopping bags? Though just a dream I feel.

The two bags, with two more being in my car, is a must for suddently I see some things on sale & something I will stock up on.

On some things, like large container of milk, to some other things I simply say "I will take as-is" so cashier just puts it for me to drop in the four wheels of the shopping cart--ways to save on the dredded plastic shopping bags piling up at home.
ptolemy at 01:23 PM JST - 7th December

As part of their efforts to combat global warming

How can we fight the sun? It seems to me not an earth problem but a sun problem.
gogogo at 09:21 PM JST - 7th December

What TV drama started this? or is it a way for the stores to make money? How much does 1 bag cost?
Apsara at 09:28 PM JST - 7th December

Cynical, aren't we? It's a local government-sponsored initiative, I believe, to reduce waste- I believe we can take that at face value. Some stores do give small discounts if you bring your own bag- my local supermarket gives a 2 yen discount. Others charge, 1-5 yen.
rurika at 09:29 PM JST - 7th December

WuZhuiQiu, they use a slightly different material for rubbish bags. Where I live you are not allowed to put your rubbish in supermarket bags. In theory the binmen refuse to pick it up, in practise they pick it up and give you a warning. There are 'approved' rubbish bags in stores or available directly from the town hall. I believe these are made of a material that produces less toxic byproducts when it degrades.
Osakadaz at 09:10 AM JST - 8th December

plastic bags are just one part of the problem of grossly overpackaged products here in Japan.I do not know of any use for biodegradable or degradable plastic as it is ALL burned here in Japan.No landfill.
Zolt at 12:18 PM JST - 8th December

Funny, I took the JLPT test yesterday and in the reading section there was a whole rant about people bringing a bag to the supermarket, but then filling it up with triple-wrapped groceries, plastic bottles and stuff.

Well, I suppose a small step is better than nothing.
gonemad at 10:06 PM JST - 8th December

Where I live you are not allowed to put your rubbish in supermarket bags. In theory the binmen refuse to pick it up, in practise they pick it up and give you a warning. There are 'approved' rubbish bags in stores or available directly from the town hall. I believe these are made of a material that produces less toxic byproducts when it degrades.

I guess the reason is not the different material. You have to pay for those approved bags, don't you? That money is going to the garbage disposal companies and they don't want you to dodge. The different material is just to give the bags more stability.

Plastic bags are made from hydrocarbons, so fundamentally I don't see a problem when they go into land fills. It's rather when they get burned together with the rest of the garbage, which is the typical way of "usage" in Japan. But plastic bags represent just a tiny fraction of the plastic garbage. I'd like to see some more serious efforts to reduce all (plastic) packaging - especially in Japan. Starting with the reduction of plastic bags is all right of course, but without a kind of roadmap what's coming next it has a smell of knee-jerk activism.
stipend at 12:24 PM JST - 9th December

Starting with the reduction of plastic bags is all right of course, but without a kind of roadmap what's coming next it has a smell of knee-jerk activism.

McDs Japan is on the knee-jerk bandwagon from this month. As part of their "environmental" effort there'll be no plastic bags if for take out. The irony is so thick I suspect it won't last long. It makes no sense.
Weasel at 12:28 PM JST - 12th December

Pass the burden of packaging the merchandise onto the customer, but not the cost reduction of the money saved from not having to purchase bags from a distributor. That's considerate.