Everyday Japan

My mother reminded me of another "everyday" experience - trash pickup - that is worth mentioning. The Japanese aggressively separate, recycle and burn trash to reduce - to the extreme - what is sent to landfills.

In our neighborhood, trash is collected 5 days a week, and when we moved in, our real-estate lady gave us a stern lecture on the importance of separating trash properly. Most people leave trash at collection points in the neighborhood, but we were told to put ours directly in front of our house - so the trash men can leave our garbage behind if we screw it up.

Here's the schedule and our typical trash output:

Every other Monday: One plastic grocery-bag of "non-burnables." In our house, this is mainly aluminum foil, but it also includes non-recyclable metal, broken glass and the rare burned-out light bulb.

Tuesday: 2-3 plastic grocery bags of "recyclable plastics," which here include any and every plastic if it's clean: small and large plastic bags, bottles, bottle tops and, in some households, even plastic wrap.

Wednesday and Saturday: 1-2 medium-sized bags of "burnables," which is mainly kitchen waste, plus any dirty plastic or non-recyclable plastic. Until last year, most plastic was considered a non-burnable, but Japan has begun burning ever more plastic because they don't have enough land to bury it. The twice-a-week burnables pickup is crucial here because people eat lots of fish (fragrant in summer!) and because most homes don't have garages or even much storage space for trash.

Friday: Recyclables. Newspaper, clean paper, and cardboard are roped together or bagged. Cans and bottles are put in separate collapsible plastic crates; the trash men load full crates on a flatbed truck and leave washed, flattened crates behind.

At first I was totally stressed out by this schedule - and annoyed that I had to deal with it almost every day. (In Tokyo, it's a no-no to put trash out the night before, because crows might attack and shred it, which is very rude for the neighbors.) But now it's old hat.