7 Eleven / 7 & iHoldings, originally uploaded by noveltimes.
More from the Japan files: convenience, convenience, convenience! The Japanese are truly a tidy and efficient culture, at least that was a huge part of my experience there. Everything from the cleanest of streets to handy-dandy digital displays above the doors on trains, indicating which direction to head for whichever exit you may desire. Hand-in-hand with such fastidiousness comes a fascination with convenience. For yours I’ve tagged some of my pics as such — nori-to-go, vending machines of all stripes and, as the picture above suggests, many a corner convenience store.
Now, this particular chain has perhaps the worst name for a convenience store ever: “7 Eleven / 7 & iHoldings.” Which is it “7 Eleven” or “7 & iHoldings”? And what does “iHoldings” have to do with convenience? But, it turns out that this chain does have some special bragging rights — they have recently decided to start recycling their food waste on a national scale. Check it!
Convenience Store Chain Establishing a System to Recycle 100% of its Unsold Food
Seven & i Holdings Co., the parent company of the major convenience store chain Seven-Eleven Japan Co., started turning its food waste into animal feed on September 1, 2007, in cooperation with Agri Gaia System Co., a company specializing in food recycling. By the end of July 2007, Seven & i Holdings had already implemented the system of composting food waste from about 1,600 stores, or about 14 percent of all its stores.