7-Eleven onigiri is going to have a new, eco-friendlier package. (Image via: SETHLUI.com)

7-Eleven to Sell Eco-Friendly Wrapped Onigiri

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Retail & Food Services
Jun 24, 2019
3189
A Japanese owned convenience store, 7-Eleven, made a remarkable statement, contributing to the demolishing of plastic pollution. On Monday, 7-Eleven announces that they would start using bio-plastic as a wrapper for their onigiri – Japanese dish involving forming rice into triangular shape wrapped in seaweed paper - instead of regular plastic to fight the rising plastic pollution that has been endangering the environment. The sale of bio-plastic wrapped onigiri will begin in July.

The Japanese government pays delicate attention to the marine pollution issue. In order to press the pollution, the government enforced all the firms, to use a plant-based wrapper. The ordinary wrapper is fossil-derived. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven is going to use sugarcane-based wrapper for approximately 2.2 billion onigiris. By this move, 7-Eleven estimated that the usage of plastic will decrease by 260 tons and carbon dioxide emission by 403 tons annually.

7-Eleven is not the only company that applies the movement. Take an example from FamilyMart and Ohsho Food Service. FamilyMart has been using recycled plastic as a container of their cold noodle products, in order to reduce plastic usage. Before 7-Eleven did it, Ohsho stated last week that they would adopt bio-degradable materials to replace their straws and spoons made of plastic to their 279 chains.

The movement of replacing plastic with other eco-friendly materials should be done by other countries as well if they want to change the environment for the better.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/business/seven-eleven-japan-to-offer-rice-balls-in-bioplastic-wrappers

Business , Retail , Food , Japan , Onigiri , 7-Eleven , Plastics , Eco-Friendly