Recycling In Japan Versus Australia

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Japan and Australia are two very similar countries. They have similar governments and similar laws and rules for the citizens of the country. However, there are also many differences between the two countries that give each country a distinct culture. Recycling in Japan is based on the Japanese Container and Packaging Recycling Law. Plastic, paper, PET bottles, aluminium and glass are collected and recycled. Japan’s country profile in Waste Atlas shows that in 2012 Recycling Rate was 20.8%. In 2014-2015, 58% of all waste produced in Australia was recycled or recovered. In 2016-2017, 46% of Municipal Solid Waste was recycled. A parliamentary inquiry into the waste and recycling industry in Australia will report on 13 June 2018.

The amount of pollution that is in the air in Japan is almost double that of Australia. This is because Australia has a larger landmass and has nearly triple the number of trees that japan has. Air quality affects our health, the liveability of our cities and towns, and our environment. Air pollution, particularly from human activity, can cause health problems that affect the heart and lungs and can cause cancer. However, Australia is number one on the list of countries with the most lung cancer sufferers and japan is 43. This could also be because a lot of the Japanese wear masks to stop them from getting sicknesses such as the common cold and viruses but also to filter the air they breathe slightly. Even short-term exposure to air pollution can cause health problems. Children, the elderly and people with existing heart and lung conditions are especially affected by air pollution.

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In Japan, people are extremely clean. However, in Australia that subject is debatable. We have lots of public bins wherever we go whereas in japan there is probably 1 if any at all in most public spaces this encourages people to take the rubbish home rather than dump it on the streets because they want their country to look nice as well as be clean. In saying that the Japanese government does have a very extensive team that clean the roads and streets in the public of both litter and also the bags of rubbish that people leave outside their homes. In Japan, if you want your household rubbish to be collected you have to buy a certain bag to leave outside your house. If the rubbish is not in that bag they will not collect your rubbish. For different sizes, it costs different prices.

Here in Australia, we have 3 different bins with different coloured lids we put all of our non-recyclables into a bin with a red lid, our recyclables into a bin with a yellow lid and our garden waste into a bin with a green lid. The red bin gets picked up weekly with the green and yellow bins alternating every week. Depending on how many people you have in your household will depend on the size of your bin or how many you are entitled to. This is how the government reduces our waste. If you don’t put your bin on the side of the road it won’t, get emptied. Also, if the lid on your bin is not closed completely it won’t get emptied. We have to ensure that the lids are closed, and our bins are out on the side of the road on our designated bin night.

Japanese people are overall better at recycling than us here in Australia. As I stated earlier, they have to categorise their recycling and in some areas, they have over 36 different categories. Japan also has a few towns that don’t generate any waste as they se all of their food scraps as composted and they recycle everything that they ever buy. They also do recycling in japan. Whereas Australia used to send their recycling to china to take care of, but now china refuses to take our recycling as it is not of high enough quality. This means that we weren’t washing our recycling thoroughly enough before sending it to China.

To conclude, Japan is overall a cleaner, more environmentally friendly country than Australia. Although both countries have similar laws, they are both very different in the way that they look after their country.

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