深夜一時を回った頃、犬の散歩がてら近所のコンビニの前を通りかかると、裏口に大きなビニール袋がいくつも積み上げられているのを目にした。袋の口から顔を出しているのは、賞味期限を数時間過ぎただけの弁当やサンドイッチ、唐揚げ、おにぎりの類である。まだほのかに温かささえ残っていそうな包みが、明日の朝にはごみ収集車に運ばれ、焼却炉の中へと消えていく。
Just past one in the morning, while walking the dog, I passed by the neighborhood convenience store and noticed several large plastic bags piled up by the back door. Peeking out of the openings were bento boxes, sandwiches, fried chicken, and rice balls — items whose best-by date had passed only a few hours earlier. By tomorrow morning, those wrappers, some of which still seemed faintly warm, would be carted off by the garbage truck and vanish into an incinerator.
店長らしき男性に話を聞くと、廃棄量は一日当たり段ボール二箱分にもなるという。「もったいないと思わずにはいられませんが、衛生上の理由でどうにもなりません」と、彼は苦笑いを浮かべた。法律に縛られている手前、勝手に分け与えるわけにもいかないらしい。
When I spoke to the man who appeared to be the store manager, he told me the daily discards amount to roughly two cardboard boxes' worth. "I can't help feeling it's wasteful, but for sanitary reasons there's nothing we can do," he said with a bitter smile. Bound by regulations as he is, he apparently can't simply give the food away on his own.
日本の食品ロスは年間およそ五百万トンに上ると推計されている。これを国民一人当たりに換算すれば、毎日茶碗一杯分のご飯を捨てている計算になる。世界中で飢餓に苦しむ人々が数億人もいることを思えば、この浪費は痛恨の極みと言うほかない。
Food loss in Japan is estimated at around five million tons annually. Divided across the population, that comes out to throwing away the equivalent of a bowl of rice per person every day. When you consider that hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from hunger, this waste can only be described as a deeply painful state of affairs.
食品ロスの発生源は、事業系と家庭系に大別される。事業系を語るうえで避けて通れないのが、業界の長年の商慣習である「三分の一ルール」だ。製造日から賞味期限までを三等分し、最初の三分の一を過ぎた商品はもう小売店に納品できないという、いわば自主規制である。
Sources of food loss are broadly split into commercial and household categories. On the commercial side, no discussion can avoid the industry's long-standing custom known as the "one-third rule." The period from manufacture to best-by date is divided into thirds, and once the first third has passed, a product can no longer be delivered to retailers — a kind of self-imposed restriction.
このルールに従う限り、まだ十分食べられる商品が、店頭に並ぶ機会すら与えられずに廃棄される。合理的な品質管理どころか、あまりに杓子定規だと言わざるを得ない。近年は大手メーカーや小売チェーンが見直しに動き始めたものの、業界全体が変わるには更なる時間を要する。
As long as this rule is followed, perfectly edible products are discarded without ever being given a chance to reach the shelves. Far from being rational quality control, it has to be called overly rigid. Major manufacturers and retail chains have begun to reconsider it in recent years, but it will take more time still for the industry as a whole to change.
家庭から出る食品ロスも看過できない。冷蔵庫の奥で忘れ去られた野菜、特売につられて買いすぎたまま腐らせた肉、子どもが残した夕食の半分。一回一回の無駄は些細なものに見えようが、年間を通せば一世帯当たり六万円にも相当するという試算もある。
Food loss from households cannot be overlooked either. Vegetables forgotten in the back of the refrigerator, meat bought in excess at a sale and left to spoil, half-eaten dinners children leave behind. A single instance of waste may seem trivial, but stretched out over a year, by some estimates it amounts to as much as sixty thousand yen per household.
我が家でも先日、半年ぶりに冷蔵庫の大掃除をしたばかりである。奥から発掘された緑色に染まった豆腐、しなびて干からびた人参、開封したきり忘れられた味噌、賞味期限を一年も過ぎたドレッシング。並べてみれば、その種類の多さと量に唖然とし、自分の管理能力のなさにあきれずにはいられなかった。
In our own home, we just gave the refrigerator a thorough cleaning for the first time in six months. From the back emerged a block of tofu turned green, a shriveled and dried-out carrot, miso forgotten ever since being opened, and salad dressing whose best-by date had passed a full year ago. Lining them up, I was dumbstruck by the sheer variety and quantity, and couldn't help being appalled at my own poor management.