One Less Piece of Plastic To Throw Away

I classify cotton swabs as an essential part of my toiletries kit.

While I'd rather not have to buy something which is only meant to be used once, I've never gotten comfortable with using ear picks (耳かき mimi-kaki) ... and besides, they don't feel very comfortable in my ears. I know lots of people are really into them, but they're just not for me.

Okay, so I've established that I prefer cotton swabs to ear picks. Especially because my preference is for the disposable option, I really hate how cotton swabs are all packaged in more plastic than necessary here in Japan.

Johnson's Cotton Swabs are available in a cardboard box, but the box doesn't store efficiently and if you take the swabs out and put them in a different container, I always end up dropping some and that's pretty annoying, too.

It's a little thing, but I wanted to share with you all in Japan the one place where I feel my cotton swab purchases create less waste.

At the Muji store, they sell cotton swabs packaged in the usual plastic package: I've tried to find other uses for these plastic containers, but I'd rather just not have them at all.

Once you have one plastic or alternative swab container, I just don't understand why anyone would need a fresh container for their fresh swabs.

So thankfully, Muji also sells replacement packages which use only a small piece of cardboard that I can put out on paper recycling day and altogether far less plastic.





And here it is: a package of cotton swabs that's just a little bit less wasteful.

What happens to the bikes?

Does anyone know what happens to the bikes that get towed in Hiroshima?

I know that they get taken to either over near Alpark or (if towed from the Station area) near the station.

But it seems like there are tons of bikes that no one ever goes to pick up. What happens to those? Are they sold off here in Hiroshima or do they get shipped off to some other Asian country?

I'd love to know more.