Recently I
chanced upon this really cool website: http://www.atlas.d-waste.com
and I would love to share it with you! J Waste Atlas website uses crowd sourcing
for data collection, which means anyone can contribute data online anytime. To
ensure reliability and consistency of data, data contributed is cross-validated
with multiple sources from scientists, consultants, academics, students and
practitioners. As of today, the webpage has a 97% global waste coverage with
statistics from 164 countries available. I am recommending this online platform
because it is user-friendly and allows easy comparison of statistics.
As a Singaporean,
I am interested to know how well my country is coping with waste management. A
comprehensive profile of Singapore’s waste management portfolio can be retrieved here (http://www.atlas.d-waste.com/index.php?view=country_report&country_id=1
) (refer to Image 1):
Image 1:
Singapore Waste Management Profile (Source: Waste Atlas)
From Singapore’s
Country Waste Profile, we could see that Singapore is ranked first in the world
for Environmental Stress. This could be attributed to our small land area plus
high population density, thus the high environmental stress. Using the
visualizing map available online, we could grasp a better view of how other
countries are performing in this aspect (see Image 2 below).
Image 2:
Visualising Map of Environmental Stress Performance Globally (Source: Waste
Atlas)
From the map, it
is evident that Southeast Asia is facing greater environmental stress compared
to other countries. But what about Japan, our country of interest for this
blog?
Japan has a lower
environmental stress as compared to Singapore but the amount of municipal waste
generated is higher (see Image 3).
Image 3:
Comparing Japan and Singapore Municipal Solid Waste Generation (Source: Waste
Atlas)
Why is Japan
generating so much municipal waste then? The country is famous for its strict
recycling system but it doesn’t seem to reflect on the webpage. From Japan’s
waste management profile (http://www.atlas.d-waste.com/index.php?view=country_report&country_id=5)
(see Image 4), the recycling rate is documented at 20.8% (as compared to 59% in
Singapore). Also, Japan is ranked 8th in the world in terms of
municipal waste management.
Image 4: Japan
Waste Management Profile (Source: Waste Atlas)
These figures
suggest that Japanese might be consumption-oriented and that the country’s
recycling system might be flawed. In my subsequent posts, I will be evaluating
the consumer behavior of Japanese and the first topic I will cover is product
packaging. So stay tuned to my next blog post!
References
Atlas.d-waste.com,. 'Waste Atlas - Interactive Map
With Visualized Waste Management Data'. Web.
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