Extreme Conservation Japanese Style
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.17.07
From NPR, Climate Connections:
Motoyuki Shibata isn't a typical Japanese.
He and his wife, Hitomi, don't own a car. They have a solar panel on the roof. They collect rainwater in an old whiskey barrel to water the plants, and they don't use dish soap.
Shibata's biggest luxury is a wooden Japanese soaking tub, which he built himself. He sits in the tub after he has thoroughly scrubbed himself. After the soak, the bathwater is recycled — and reused for washing clothes. The process is facilitated by a simple hookup.
Shibata guesses that about 5 percent of Japanese use a pump to send water from their bathtubs into washing machines.
After the clothes are washed, Shibata does what most Japanese do: He dries his wash on an outdoor clothesline. Most Japanese don't own clothes dryers. Their clothing hangs on television-antennae-like racks that twirl around on their railings.
"You get to see lots of clothes hanging. … Don't see that in America," Shibata says. "Space is very valuable here. If you can do without something, you do without it."
Unfortunately, the rest of the article discusses how Japanese minimalism is giving way to consumerism. ::NPR via ::MNP Green
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Good for him! Some people "get it".
Actually solar panels are huge in Japan. It's status symbol so some people even put up fake ones on their roofs so it looks like they're classy.
Motoyuki Shibata isn't a typical Japanese. He and his wife, Hitomi, don't own a car.
Actually, that's quite typical.
I think it's pretty common to reuse the bath water from the soaking tub for your washing machine in Japan. I'm sure more than 5% of people do this. They sell pumps specifically for this purpose at most stores that sell hoome goods. My wife and I use one, her parents use one, and most of our friends and other family members use them, too. I find that it's much easier to be green in Japan compared to the US where I grew up. Smaller and more energy efficient housing, wonderful public transportation eliminating the need for a car, shops in walking distance...
Every summer there's a few weeks where we have water bans, and we plug the bathtub when taking baths/showers.
Using a regular garden hose, through the window in the bathroom, I siphon the soapy water to water the front lawn, flower bed, garden.
It's surprising how much water is used by two adults & two teens. The bathtub nearly overflows.
Oh, the best - it makes the neighbors jealous !
One of them called the city to complain, an inspector came by, and I just so happened to be watering using this technique.
He walked away laughing once explained.
Gray Water did wonders for the lawn, I actually had less White Worms (that eat the grass roots).
My wife is Japanese - she does exactly the same things every time we go to Japan. Most of the things mentioned in the article are quite typical for the Japanese.
What strikes me most (actually scares me most) when I read this article and the associated comments, is even with how much greener the Japanese are than folks from other industrialized nations, Japan is still finding it difficult to reach the commitments set forth in the Kyoto protocol.
Japan Wrestles with Kyoto Accord Promises from NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14087783
""According to the latest in 2005, total greenhouse gases are a 7.8 percent increase compared to the baseline year of 1990," Yatsu says, going over the latest numbers on Japan's progress.
And according to the Kyoto commitment, the target is 6 percent below the baseline figures from 1990. So instead of cutting emissions by 6 percent, they have grown about 8 percent. That adds up to a 14 percent problem."
If Japan can't, who can?
If Japan can't, who can?
The US has made that agreement essentially meaningless, so why should any country commit to targets at this point?
This is very refreshing news. All too often the only ‘environmental’ stories that come out of the Far East are how many whales they’ve slaughtered in the name of scientific research, or what part of which endangered specie they are going to eat this week to increase their virility. It’s wonderful that we can finally see a different, and more positive, side of the Japanese culture. And one that we can learn from, too – how many in the West actually recycle their bathwater? 5%? Yeah, right! I think most Westerners would rather eat tiger penis!
I don’t have figures on something as mundane as bathwater, but I imagine the environmental savings would be significant if we could hit that 5% mark. And there’s no reason we can’t. Okay, so a little plumbing would be involved – look at the savings on your water bill. And think how you could pat yourself on the back for the environmental support you were giving. I’m sure many people would look into this if only there was more awareness of the possibility and a well documented ‘idiots guide’ on how to actually implement it. (What you betting someone reads this and next week there’s an ebook on this subject available for just $37.99!?)
A great little story.
Steve N. Lee
Author of eco/religious thriller 'What if…?'.
www.steve-n-lee.com
I was going to say a lot of this is pretty typical. Anyway, Japanese aren't really all that more green than anywhere else. If you buy pretty much anything here, it's wrapped or put in way too many bags. Just an example, if you buy something at McDonalds the food is wrapped individually and put in a paper bag, the drink is also put in a paper bag, and then those bags are put in a plastic bag. Also with germ phobia a lot of things here are single use.