With the UN conference COP28 being held, climate change countermeasures have become an urgent issue, and in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, efforts have begun to promote the take-home of leftover food in order to reduce food loss and reduce burnable waste, which will lead to measures against global warming.
The Ministry of the Environment and other organizations are promoting activities aimed at reducing food loss by taking home leftovers under the nickname "mottECO" from adults.
This fiscal year, Suginami Ward became the first municipality to participate in a model project in collaboration with a major restaurant chain, and the initiative has been underway since October at 10 restaurants in the ward.
The take-out containers distributed at partner stores were procured by the city using the same paper materials as the major restaurant chains.
Each restaurant gives it to the customer who wants it, and the customer packs the leftovers in a container and takes them home.
When handing out the container to the customer,
you are also supposed to hand them a flyer with
a warning that they should eat it as soon as possible, that they should
not carry it for a long time,
and that they should reheat it thoroughly.
One of the partner restaurants, a Japan restaurant in Asaya, has given seven containers to families and other customers to take home leftover fried foods.
The owner of the restaurant, Masanori Ota, said, "It is said that the decrease in the amount of fish caught is related to global warming, and I have been wondering if there is anything I can do for a long time.
Suginami Ward distributes 1 containers to each store, and at the beginning of the year, we will start investigating how much they have been used to verify the effectiveness.
In the next fiscal year, we hope to increase the number of cooperating stores to about 7 and resume the initiative in the fall.
Seiichi Baba, manager of the Suginami Ward Waste Reduction Measures Division, said, "We have heard from the restaurant staff that it is painful to have leftover food that they have prepared with their hearts and have to throw it away. In Japan, some people may be embarrassed to take home leftovers, but I would like to dispel that. Garbage uses a lot of energy for collection, transportation, and incineration. I hope that this accumulation will help reduce CO30 emissions and prevent global warming."