Home

Welcome to Coordinates: CEEatGT's student travel blog!

       

Culturally Driven Waste Management

Management and waste disposal methods in the United States and Japan do differ. In Japan, about 80% of the waste is incinerated whereas in the United States 52% goes to landfills and about 13% in combustion. I believe cultural, geographical, and governing differences has affected the stark differences in their public policy.

Japan and the United States have a different history and evolved into different societies culturally. According to Hofstede, Japan is more of a collective society than an individualistic one like the United States, as shown in the Figure below. The United States...

> READ MORE
By:
Joanne Tamayo
Class:
Japan Sustainable Development
Where:
Japan

Does Limited Land Space Force Innovation?

It is evident that Japan and the United States approach Municipal Solid Waste disposal differently. Japan and the United states are two countries that are developed countries with similar economies and innovation rates. United States ranks second in economy size and Japan is ranked third. Both the United States and Japan are some of the most innovative countries in the world, so these two countries have been leaders in producing break through technology. However, when it comes to waste disposal, Japan and the United States use very different methods and technology. In Japan, about 80% of...

> READ MORE
By:
Joanne Tamayo
Class:
Japan Sustainable Development
Where:
Japan

What a Waste of Land: America vs Japan's Cultures Dealing With Waste Management

Waste management is not a topic many people want to discuss in America, but we may not have much of a choice as landfills eat away at our geography. This is a problem shared with many other countries, but Japan is not one of them. In fact, Japan has taken the opposite route and uses incineration plants to get rid of their waste. Though neither method is without its weaknesses, it is curious how two highly developed countries developed such different ways to manage their waste. So why does Japan favor the incinerator and America the landfill?

 

...

> READ MORE
By:
Rachel Titshaw
Class:
Japan Sustainable Development
Where:
Japan

How Culture Influences Waste Management in Japan and America

Waste management in Japan is very different than in the United States. Japan primarily incinerates all of their waste while the United States disposes of their waste in landfills. Japan, on the other hand, does not recycle a lot of their waste compared to the United States. However, Japan does use their old landfills to generate energy. We had the chance to tour a solar farm that had been built on top of an old landfill.

The main reason that Japan incinerates their trash and the...

> READ MORE
By:
Carson Duerr
Class:
Japan Sustainable Development
Where:
Japan

Factors Influencing Waste Management Around the World

While there are certainly some similarities between the two highly developed nations, there are also major infrastructure differences between Japan and the United States. As we have talked about in class and observed throughout the trip, these differences are often a product of deeper cultural nuances. Because of these cultural differences, Japan and the United States vary in their practices and overall attitudes toward municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal.

Solar...

> READ MORE
By:
Elise Koepke
Class:
Japan Sustainable Development
Where:
Japan

Trash Disposal in Japan and the United States

The difference in trash or MSW (municipal solid waste) disposal between Japan and the United States is one difference that I have been really surprised by. Japan takes trash disposal and recycling way more seriously than the United States despite there not being trash cans everywhere you go. In the United States, you’ll see multiple trash cans on almost every street corner, and people will still litter and not seem to care about disposal.

Another difference I was surprised by was the amount of MSW that people produce every day. People in Japan produce an average of two pounds...

> READ MORE
By:
Carson Duerr
Class:
Japan Sustainable Development
Where:
Japan

Cultural and Environmental Differences Surrounding MSW in Japan and the US

Japan and the US have cultural and environmental differences that affect how we dispose of waste. Factors such as size, rule following, and stigmas influence the MSW systems.

The main difference that has influenced Japan’s MSW system is how much less usable land than the US does. Without extra space, they can’t use landfills as easily. In lecture, we learned about how you can’t put a building on top of a landfill because of how the landfill sinks over time. People also don’t want to live near a landfill, so Japan can’t waste the space on top of or...

> READ MORE
By:
Lara Kassabian
Class:
Japan Sustainable Development
Where:
Japan

Pages