Tuesday, March 24, 2009

recycle

Living in Japan, I've become more aware of recycling. I bring my own bags whenever I go shopping and try not to take any plastic or paper bags whenever possible.

So you may or may not be thinking...what do I line my garbage cans with? In the kitchen, I use the mandatory city garbage bag. It is clear and has the mandatory city stamp on it.

For the toilet and bathroom, I use the plastic wrapping from the toilet paper. Whenever I buy a package of toilet paper, I open the top carefully and use the rolls of toilet paper. When all the rolls are gone, I put the "plastic bag" into the trash as a liner.

Do you do anything special to recycle or save resources where you live?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post Kat. Especially with Earth Hour coming up this Saturday. We've taken to bringing our own shopping sacks when we buy groceries, and it was encouraging to see a sign at one of my favorite supermarkets that by the year 2010, the store will no longer carry plastic sacks, but will have jute, cotton and/or other reusable shopping bags for purchase.

4°C?! Brrrr...

Lynne said...

I thought I was doing better by using the plastic bags from the grocery store as trash liners. However, I can do more and am going to using cloth bags vs. plastic. Liked your ideas!

chandlerguera said...

Like you, I try to bring my reusable canvas shopping bags everywhere and it's really cut down on the plastic.
If I get paper sacks or thicker paper shopping bags, I always reuse them.
Plain white or manila shopping bags can be decorated with stamps, stickers, ribbon, etc.

K and S said...

Rowena, I've heard of one prefecture that is charging people for the plastic bags they take.

Thanks Lynne :)

Take care you two.
Kat

Deb in Hawaii said...

You are so good! I am good with my bunches of cloth and vinyl bags and getting groceries and things but there is a lot more I could do. I do take my Sunday newspapers, weekly ad newspapers and old towels to the Humane Society which makes me feel good as they are always so happy to get them.

K and S said...

That is a great way to reuse paper sacks, Chandlerguera :)

That is a great way to reuse newspapers Deb :)

Take care you two.
Kat

Abigail (aka Mamatouille) said...

Kat, the co-ops near me charge 5 yen for every bag, but I usually take my own cloth bags anyway.

That's a great way to use the TP bags. Creative!

K and S said...

I think the co-op in my neighborhood does that too, Abigail, though I always bring my own bag so I don't really know. I always wonder if charging for the bags will help deter people from taking them.

Take care.
Kat

Jeff9 said...

We're talking beyond recycling - better than recycling. Save money and the Earth and be clean at the same time...yes! Get serious and add Bathroom Bidet Sprayers to all your bathrooms. Available at www.bathroomsprayers.com with these you won't even need toilet paper any more, just a towel to dry off! It's cheap and can be installed without a plumber; and runs off the same water line to your toilet. You'll probably pay for it in a few months of toilet paper savings. And after using one of these you won't know how you lasted all those years with wadded up handfuls of toilet paper. Now we're talking green and helping the environment without any pain.

K and S said...

Thanks for the ad Jeff :)

Take care.
Kat

Suze said...

Wow, way to go Kat. I only use my bags for the supermarket. I should use them for everything else. I need to sew more bags. :)

K and S said...

If you have old bags lying around Suze you won't have to sew more :)

Take care.
Kat