The Post About Garbage

Two weeks since I last updated? Where has the time gone? In an effort to put up more content until I have more time to do something a bit longer, let's look at something mundane.

Trash disposal is complicated in Japan. Each piece of trash needs to be examined and analyzed in order to determine how to dispose of it properly.

These bins are in every building and common area on the campus of my university:


Instead of quickly tossing the garbage into a catch-all container, the trash has to be separated into burnable garbage, non-burnable metal garbage (soda cans), non-burnable plastic (food wrappers and some bottles), and P.E.T. bottles (standard soda and tea bottles). For lack of extra land, there are not many landfills. In this school setting where food containers are the most common waste, paper will get burned and everything else will get recycled when it can.

Sorting becomes more severe when it comes to residential areas. In the apartment building where I live, I am expected to sort all these items into separate bins: burnable paper and chopsticks, plastic waste, PET bottles, metal cans, glass, food waste, cardboard milk and juice cartons, batteries, clothes, newpapers, books, and a couple more I can't think of right now. You can't just cheat and throw everything into a bag either. City residents are required to put trash into clear bags for pick-up and a fine is given out if the garbage is not sorted properly. This is a bit easier to discern since there are two pick-up days per week and different items are picked up on different days.

I guess since I am only a temporary resident in Japan, I get the abridged version of the sorting regulations. Here is a New York Times article I ran across while looking up stuff: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12garbage.html

Perhaps such policies will get adopted across the US once there are no more spaces for landfills. Who knows.