What is the best way to reduce resource waste as much as possible

Ryusei Yamami

Who am I? Who do I want to be?

I am  a sophomore in the School of International Relations at the University of Shizuoka. I have studied English & Chinese to make a living overseas.

I also want to begin to study Italian and learn about something financial. In the future, I want to lead a life in Milan as an investor.

What local and global problems am I aware of?

• Local problems : There have been a huge amount of food loss especially in school including school meals and school cafeteria.

• Global problems : The differences in the amount of food provided between developed countries and developing ones is enormous.

                                         Not having been using limited resources efficiently is one of the serious problems.

What Sustainable Development Goals have I learned about?

• Goal  ZERO HUNGER

  • Information   

There are a lot of refugees who suffer from poverty under the bad environment. In order to deal with this situation, an NGO started projects to conserve their lives.

https://courrier.jp/news/archives/315274/

• Goal  RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION 

  • Information   

More and more natural resources have been used to produce fashion goods without chemical substances.

https://courrier.jp/news/archives/320387/

What did I do and learn in my fieldwork?

• What was my research question? 

            What amount of food is wasted in the supermarket regularly?. 

• Why is this important to me?

            I am interested in efficient use of limited non-permanent resources, so I wanted to investigate the amount at the local supermarket first.

• What did I do?

            I visited the local supermarket and asked the president about food loss. What amount of food is thrown away and how to reduce the amount.

• What data did I collect?

           From 2 to 3 big garbage bags are produced a week. 

           When the shop stocks up from retail stores, it is important for the shop not to purchase too much as it can sell without waste. 

           Eventually, that connects to not wasting.

This is the picture ofthat trash thrown away in a week, but all of these are not food garbage. This includes plastic and burnableflammable trash.

• What trends did I find in the data?

           As the supermarket where I interviewed does , most of the grocery stores try to purchase without loss and in the end it connects to food loss. 

• How does my fieldwork connect to my future?

            At this time, I did my field work locally. In the future, I want to inspect globally.        

Who is doing related work locally and globally? What are they doing?

• Local connection: Companies and universities in Japan try to use electronic devices as much as possible. It leads to reduced waste of paper. 

• Global connection: Starbuacks started to use paper straws instead of plastic ones. It prevents plastic from being overused.

What do I think would be a useful project to work towards achieving the SDGs?

• Short summary: It would be a useful project to research the amount of food wasted engaged in sports events. 

• SDGs targetted: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION 

• Who Audience who comes to watch the game and the stadium staff

• What  What amount of food purchased and thrown away

• When  The days when the games take place

• Where  Sports stadiums

• How  (how many / how much)  To research all the trash boxes there and inspect the seats and inside & outside of the stadiums.

• Why  I was impressed to see that many Japanese people picked up trash when FIFA QATAR 2022 had taken place after the games had finished 

         and then other countrie’s’ supporters appreciated them. Picking up trash may connect to reduce resource waste.

• Materials https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQD17DC3QCYUDCB00F.html

• Dangers / risks   Someone may complain about this project because spectators come to enjoy the games, so they may feel uncomfortable, saying

                           ‘’Don’t rain on our parades’’.

• Problems  It is likely that Iyou can’t collect accurate data.

• Timeline    Before the games start and after the games end, you search the amount of food purchased by interviewing stores, trash boxes, and inside

                  & outside of the stadiums.  

Reflection

• What I learned this semester:  I could develop my ability to find what I have interest in and to express what I researched in easy English.

• What I did well: I could come up with a lot of ideas by cooperating with students.

                         I  could come up with ideas locally and globally.

• What I could have done better: I should have considered other SDGs projects. Actually I tried to research about resources, but I wanted to research several options.

• The connection to my future: I have no idea whether I will directly be engaged in SDGs projects or something, but in the future, 

                                               it will be more important to take the future of the planet into account.

• Advice for other students: When you take this class, you should be interested in SGDs and so on in advance.