How much plastic do I rely on in my life? How far is my life from zero consumption? This is the first question that I have ever seriously considered the global environment in grade 11. In the current consumption model of society, it is taken for granted to dispose of garbage. The product is packaged, of course, and the trash can is everywhere if you look around. How much garbage do I take out every day as a matter of course in this society? So I looked back on my life today. First, I got up in the morning and brushed my teeth, and washed my face. My toothbrush is plastic. Of course, the container for the toothpaste and facial cleanser is plastic, and then the skincare products in the plastic container are used for skin care. After combing my hair with a plastic comb, I ate breakfast with bread in a plastic package. At that time, I spilled water, so I wiped the water with a tissue and threw it away. Then I went to a grocery store, put the snacks and seasonings in plastic containers and vegetables in plastic bags, weighed them, and put them in a shopping cart. Later, when I played tennis, I drank a polari sweat in a plastic bottle. When I ate dinner, I threw away leftovers for dinner. In the bath, I used shampoo and conditioner in a plastic container. I was surprised by the sheer amount of plastic used and the sheer amount of garbage thrown out, just looking back over the day. If I think that all of this will become garbage after that, it's scary to know how polluted the global environment is.
But how did people live before there was no plastic? So I paid attention to the lifestyle of my home country, Japan, in the Edo period (the period in Japan 1603 – 1868). At the time, technology was not advanced, and there was no power generation. Most of them were made by hand without a machine. Therefore, the number of products was small. However, 1.1 million people lived in Edo. How did this population come from underdeveloped technology? It was a recycling-oriented society. It was a society where consumption was kept to a minimum by recycling everything and using it repeatedly. Since there was no air conditioner in Japan during the Edo period, many people cooled down near the river, and houses were designed to cool the wind. Besides, by sprinkling water on the ground, the heat was removed by evaporation, and people used it to cool themselves. In this way, in the Edo period, efforts were made to create comfort in life without using energy while making the most of the power of nature, such as water and wind. When clothes were made, a design drawing was used in which hardly any chips came out when cutting the shape of clothes from a piece of cloth. The cloth was made slightly larger from the beginning, and the sleeves and hem were sewn up so that they could be worn even after they had grown up. The cloth, which was no longer used for clothing, became a rag, and after it became worn out, it was burned as fuel, and even the ashes were used as fertilizer wrapped around the field. Even human waste was recycled as fertilizer for agriculture. Thus, in the Edo period, waste was kept to zero as much as possible by recycling things. For the Edo period people, this may be just a device to live with less energy before the development of technology, but there are many things to learn. The clothes we can no longer wear can be used as a rag, and instead of using an air conditioner to cool down, we can open the windows a little to let in the outside air and wind in to get cool. People's lifestyle in the Edo period will probably become the starting point for us to implement an Eco-friendly Lifestyle.
Comments