Mottainai is the Japanese word that is said when something is wasted that still had use in it. A sheet of paper thrown away with one side blank. A light left on in an empty room. Food left on a plate. It is an exclamation more than a word, a small flinch at waste, and children in Japan hear it from the time they can hold chopsticks.
The kitchen is where it is heard most, because the kitchen is where most household waste happens. Here is how the idea works there, and how to borrow it.
Finish the plate
The first rule is the simplest. In Japan, leaving rice in the bowl is bad manners, and the last grains are eaten, not scraped into the bin. The habit starts with a small serving. Rice is served in a small bowl and refilled if wanted; the plate is not loaded in the hope that it will be finished.
The borrowed version is to serve less and go back for more. The second helping is a decision; the first helping, if it is too big, is waste before it starts.
Use the whole thing
Japanese home cooking uses parts that other kitchens throw away. The green tops of daikon radish are chopped and salted or stir-fried. The outer leaves of a cabbage go into soup. The water that rice was rinsed in is kept for washing vegetables or watering plants. Vegetable peelings are simmered into a stock, or dried and fried as a snack.
None of this is exotic. It is a habit of asking, before anything goes in the bin, whether it still has a use. The answer is often yes, and the dish it makes is often the better one.
Pickle, dry, salt
Preserving is the other half of mottainai. The vegetable that will not last the week is salted overnight and becomes a pickle that lasts a month. The mushrooms that are going soft are dried on a tray by the window. The last of the fish is salted and grilled tomorrow.
A kitchen with a jar of salt pickles going at all times wastes very little, because anything in danger of going off has somewhere to go.
The bento box
The bento, the packed lunch, is where yesterday’s food goes. The last of the rice, two pieces of the fish, a corner of the omelette, a few pickles. A bento is not made from fresh ingredients; it is made from what is there, arranged with care so that it does not look like leftovers. The care is the point. Food treated as leftovers is wasted; the same food treated as lunch is eaten.
Buy less, more often
Japanese kitchens are small and so are Japanese fridges, and most households shop every day or two, buying what will be eaten soon. A large weekly shop fills a large fridge, and a full fridge hides things until they are past saving.
Not everyone can shop daily. But a smaller shop, twice a week, with a look in the fridge first, is within reach of most people, and it removes most of the waste at the source.
Mottainai and kakeibo
Mottainai and kakeibo, the household ledger, were taught together in the same households for the same reason: both are ways of looking at what is already there before reaching for more. The ledger records what came in. Mottainai makes sure it was used. A kitchen run on both throws away very little and spends less than it expects to.
Where to start
One thing: before anything goes in the bin this week, ask whether it still has a use. Not every time. Often enough to notice how often the answer is yes.
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This article is part of a series exploring Japanese philosophy and intentional living: