What surprised me is the fact that even though the snack consists of supplies imported from other countries, the pocky box itself was made entirely from supplies in Japan. Another discovery was the sheer amount of processes that the pocky box needs to take, before it gets shipped to the nearby supermarket. I have always thought that pocky boxes were made by one single company, but it turns out that many different companies take part on the assembly line. The box itself was made by a paper company, then the blank box was shipped to a printing company to be decorated, and finally transported to the Glico factory to be made into the final product. 

This project helped me raise environmental awareness because considering the fact that something as simply as a pocky box involves three different manufacturing companies, a considerable amount of transportation is done by trucks. I have always been conscious of the environmental effects coming from privately owned vehicles, but after this project, I became more aware of the amount of traffic caused by public vehicles such as ones used for manufacturing and shipping. What makes this even more concerning is the fact that traffic caused by manufacturing are harder to manage and regulate compared to private vehicles. 

However, I think I can help lessen the impact on the environment by being more mindful of what I buy at the supermarket. There are many different kinds of pocky boxes ranging from the traditional two-pack style pocky boxes to a larger eight-pack pocky boxes. The traditional two-pack style pocky generates the least amount of plastic waste since the package itself is paper, and the pocky only consists of two plastic wrapping. On the other hand, the eight-pack set contains more plastic wrapping as  well as an additional plastic tray to maintain the structure. As many mediums point out, Japan does have the nature to excessively package products, so being sensitive to plastic litter is an important aspect of living in Japan (Matsuzaki, n.d.). Going back to my personal actions, avoiding bigger pocky boxes and sticking to the traditional would allow me to minimize my impact towards the environment through waste, while maintaining my routine and consumption habits. 

Although this isn't related to the pocky boxes  and more towards paper waste in general, I had the tendency to dispose small pieces of cardboard along with other combustibles. However, throughout this project, I noticed the importance of recycling. So when recording my waste diary, I decided to distinguish cardboards from combustilbles and to dispose it as different wastes (as seen in Tuesday's waste in waste diary). So through photo documentation, this project affected me in a positive way in terms of realization as well as actual improvement in action.