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PAGE 4 ' SUSTAINABILITY NEWSLETTER City of Roseville Public Works & Engineering (Continued from Page 1) Sustainability Lessons from Japan While transportation and land use are two positive sustainable attrib- utes to life in Japan, the country has opportunities to improve in other areas. Japan has some of the highest consumption rates of sin- gle use plastic in the world - you'll often find food and other items coming individually wrapped in plastic, packaged in a larger plastic bag, and then carried out in a third plastic bag. For example, I bought some face masks that were each individually wrapped and came in an additional plastic bag. Additionally, vending machines can be found on every corner selling drinks and other items in plastic bottles - as someone who prefers to carry around a reusable water bottle, there were very few places to refill a bottle anywhere, but vending machines were everywhere. On the flipside, Japanese recy- cling rates for PET bottles are extremely high. A very colorful drink vending Ironically, due to a terrorist attack in the 1990s, urban areas in Ja- machine in Osaka pan have very few waste bins in public areas. The expectation is that you must carry your trash around until you find a place to dispose of it, either at home, at a train station, etc. You might think this would lead to lots of litter in cities, but streets and sidewalks are impeccably clean - Japanese people largely act for the collective good rather than indi- vidual convenience, and this comes across both in how few pieces of litter are on the ground, as well as the high levels of politeness and etiquette on trains and elsewhere. A cherry blossom-themed handkerchief I purchased in Matsumoto, artfully folded like a kimono While plastic is everywhere, one thing you won't find often are paper towels in bathrooms, or endless napkins at restaurants. Most people in Japan carry around small hand towels to dry their hands with or use as a makeshift napkin as needed when dining, and you can find endless varie- ties of these towels at stores, sometimes called tenugui. I purchased sever- al to use during my trip, and because they func- tion so much better than a paper towel or napkin, they're now part of my daily routine - I always car- ry one with me to use as a handkerchief, napkin, or to clean up errant spills, and it's such a joy to interact with something that brings me back to my time in Japan. Finally, I couldn't help but notice that heat pumps are everywhere in Japan. The archipelago has a wide variety of climates, many of which require both heating and cooling, and the technoloav was identified early on as a way to reduce dependence on fossil gas and promote energy efficiency. It was exciting to imagine a similar view across Roseville, and because it's my job, I'll end with a plug —if your air conditioner is aging, think about replacing it with a heat pump! Don't forget that you can stack federal, state, and Xcel Energy incentives together to save money on installation. The view from my Kyoto hotel room —hard to see, but 1 counted at least 20 heat pumps in this picture' You can see two in the bottom right corner. Page 16 of 115