Starting next month, some business operators will have to scale back on giving out disposable plastic items including the ubiquitous cutlery handed out at convenience stores and elsewhere across Japan.
Feb 21, 2021
The amount of plastic produced worldwide each year could fill every skyscraper in New York. Of the 380 million tons of plastic produced annually, only 1% is biodegradable or made from renewable natural sources rather than fossil fuels. This represents a small, but growing portion of the market.
While alternatives to petroleum-based plastic are still in their infancy in Japan, a number of forward-looking manufacturers are investing in these materials, notwithstanding the initial challenges of such innovations. They hope to make a dent in the ever-growing Japanese market, where plastic production has increased steadily from 7,518 tons in 1980 to 10.67 million tons in 2018.
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