Let me know how you take out the garbage.

[cherry_cherry]

I live in a middle-sized city with the population of 600,000 in Japan. In Japan, most cities have introduced periodical separate waste collection systems. My city is not the exception. The schedule for this month in my city is shown below.(See Note 1)

This separate collection system differs from city to city. The schedule differs from district to district in a single city. The schedule differs from month to month. It is frequently changed.

Special container plastic bags must be used for containing the garbage. And the special plastic bags must be transparent.(See Note 2)



Under such circumstances, many citizens feel a variety of pressures.

1. They have to check the garbage collection schedule every day. And they have to take out the garbage at a certain time every day. The schedule is not a fixed one. It is frequently changed.

2. Most households have small paper shredders. They shred mails, documents, letters and so on before put them into the garbage plastic bags, in order not to allow their neighbors to look into them. In my neighborhood, some odd persons frequently tried to look into the garbage in the past. I didn't know why they did that. But, later, I knew that they checked my garbage. It was their jobs. Our city authorities employed some people to check the garbage. It was a surprise. Then, I bought a paper shredder. Since then I have not seen such people so far.

3. According to the schedule (See Note 1), we have to keep at home a variety of wastes from one night to almost a month. In the past, the wastes were collected twice a week. Ever kind of wastes were collected at one time. City workers separated the garbage to dispose them. Nowadays, every household has to have a special space at home only to keep such wastes from one night to even a month. In the case of dry battery cells and light bulbs, they are collected only once a month.

4. Wastes are usually taken out to certain designated collection areas on the public roads. Such an area is located in every 500 meters. Nobody is allowed to take out his or her own garbage into a different garbage site.

5. This every-day practice has become very onerous duties. We feel that any of our neighbors can learn what kind of food we eat, what kind of underwear we take, what kind of books we read, what kind of drugs we use.......... With regard to our wastes, there is no privacy at all. To make matters worse, somebody checks our garbage as their job. It is scary. Such garbage watchers often attach seals that read "wrong kind of garbage" or "wrong waste date" and so on.

----------

Nowadays, the Japanese government is losing popularity among ordinary citizens. The ruling party has stayed in power almost continuously since 1945 when Japan was defeated in the WWII. The Japanese government has become increasingly autocratic. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe blatantly speaks of the restoration of the past militaristic tradition including Yasukuni Shrine. It is apparent that the government wants to watch closely every citizen. This separate waste collection system has gradually introduced throughout the country for the past 20 years. Now I believe the real purpose of the system is not the creation of "the environmentally friendly society" but "the closely-watched society". In addition, the purpose of the close watch may be not the protection of citizens but the control of citizens.

I hear that in some countries, people have public garbage collection sites along the roads. And citizens can carry their wastes to the sites, mostly by cars, mostly any time they want, any kind of wastes they want.

I don't think Japanese style waste separate collection systems are good. But I have no idea about how people in other countries deal with their garbage.

If you don't mind, I'd like to know about it. I think any kind of answer would help us.


------(Note 1)-------------------------------------
■separate waste collection schedule for June

1 (Friday) plastic containers
2 (Saturday) no collection
3 (Sunday) no collection
4 (Monday) combustible wastes
5 (Tuesday) newspaper, cardboards
6 (Wednesday) cans, bottles, plastic bottles
7 (Thursday) combustible wastes
8 (Friday) plastic containers
9 (Saturday) no collection
10 (Sunday) no collection
11 (Monday) combustible wastes
12 (Tuesday) newspaper, cardboards, dry battery cells, light bulbs
13 (Wednesday) incombustible wastes
14 (Thursday) combustible wastes
15 (Friday) plastic containers
16 (Saturday) no collection
17 (Sunday) no collection
18 (Monday) combustible wastes
19 (Tuesday) newspaper, cardboards
20 (Wednesday) cans, bottles, plastic bottles
21 (Thursday) combustible wastes
22 (Friday) plastic containers
23 (Saturday) no collection
24 (Sunday) no collection
25 (Monday) combustible wastes
26 (Tuesday) newspaper, cardboards
27 (Wednesday) incombustible wastes
28 (Thursday) combustible wastes
29 (Friday) plastic containers
30 (Saturday) no collection
--------------------------------------------------
------(Note 2)--------------------------------
City authorities call for using transparent plastic bags. They say they need to check the garbage before collecting them.
-----------------------------------------------

[Iron Chef]

Nice post but I don't subscribe to your "Big Brother" theory. It's not that the Japanese government wants to know your business but rather it's an issue of geography. You have roughly half the population of the U.S. in a geographic territory smaller than the state of California surrounded by water on all sides. Proper waste management is essential, simple as that.

In the past, the wastes were collected twice a week. Ever kind of wastes were collected at one time. City workers separated the garbage to dispose them. Nowadays, every household has to have a special space at home only to keep such wastes from one night to even a month.

That's because this is an effort to make the individual take more responsibility upon themselves instead of just throwing all their waste into one bag and letting someone else deal with it. For some it may be hard to buy into this routine but it becomes an afterthought after awhile and leads to better personal habits.

5. This every-day practice has become very onerous duties. We feel that any of our neighbors can learn what kind of food we eat, what kind of underwear we take, what kind of books we read, what kind of drugs we use.......... With regard to our wastes, there is no privacy at all. To make matters worse, somebody checks our garbage as their job. It is scary. Such garbage watchers often attach seals that read "wrong kind of garbage" or "wrong waste date" and so on.

Once it's bagged and you set it outside it becomes public domain, of course there's no privacy: that's why it is waste. The US Supreme Court ruled on this issue saying that bags of trash left on the side of the street were open to inspection by "animals, children, scavengers, snoops, and other members of the public." I suspect the Japanese legality might be the same. If you're worried about issues of identity theft then make sure you don't put anything compromising in your garbage.

[Mikawa Ossan]

Once it's bagged and you set it outside it becomes public domain, of course there's no privacy: that's why it is waste.
I agree with this. When you throw something in the garbage, you are relinquishing ownership of that article. Therefore, any person can go through the garbage you or any other person tosses out, as it is not the property of any individual anymore.

[EmperorHirohito]

Ok, here is the view from the UK, once upon a time we used to have our rubbish collected once a week, households had to make sure their rubbish was placed outside the property,in black bags, the night before collection day.
But that has now changed, we now have two plastic wheelie bins, to be filled with different types of rubbish, which are now emptied once a fortnight.
As a nation, we in Great Britain are now being told that we must sort out our rubbish and recycle more as we are running out of land to bury our rubbish in, the alternative for us as a nation is to build incinerators and burn it all.
So outside my backdoor I have one black and one green wheelie bin, the black one is for normal household rubbish that cannot be recycled and the green one is for cardboard,metal tins,newspaper and magazines,clear plastic bottles.
And guess what, the local council has tagged these wheelie bins so that every week when they are emptied, they can be weighed and stored on a computer system that allows council officals to know exactly how much rubbish in general households throw out and likewise how much households recycle.
Tonight its time to put out the recycling bin, which thankfully is more than three-quarters full. :)
Plus as a footnote, there are plans to charge people extra money if they dont recycle and the amount of non-recycleable rubbish exceeds a certain amount. The more rubbish you throw out, the more you will pay for it.

[Mikawa Ossan]

Here's how it works at the city of Kariya in Aichi prefecture:

Tuesdays and Fridays are burnable garbage.
The first and third Monday of the month are paper packaging goods.
Wednesdays are plastics.
The second and fourth Wednesday of the month are for PET bottles.
The first Friday of the month is non-burnable garbage.
The second and fourth Friday of the month is steel, metals, and glass bottles.
The third Friday of the month of aluminum cans and bottles.
Newspapers, milk cartons, cardboard, magazines, used batteries, spray cans, gas cans, and old cloth are collected at several locations on alternating Saturdays from 8:00~12:00.

The newest of these categories is paper packaging goods, which started a year ago if I'm not mistaken.

We are supposed to take our garbage to the local collection point by 8 a.m.

If we miss the appointed day and want to get rid of our garbage, we can go to a special collection point between the hours of 8:30~12:00 and 1300~16:30 Mondays to Saturdays.

I know that the city of Hekinan here in Aichi has more categories, but I don't know the specifics.

I also know that as of 6 years ago, the town of Misumi in Yamaguchi prefecture required you to separate glass bottles by colour. Also, they basically required that you take of the non-PET plastic part of the PET bottles where you attach the cap. The best way to do this is with a wrench or spanner.

[EmperorHirohito]

Wow, Mikawa san if what you have just posted were to be implimented over here in the UK, it would never take off. People over here are slowly getting used to sorting out their rubbish.And in some cases failing miserably.

Japan is way advanced in rubbish collection compared to the UK.

[pipokun]

It is highly debatable which is more ecofriendly to reuse or recycle plastic bottles. But I was a bit surprised to see the reuse in an European country.

I did not know that the Auntie Garbage in my neighbour is the x-filed agent, but garbage plants here also accept your garbage when you are too impatient to wait the designated day.

[nanook]

Separation is a science in itself. As one of many examples, I have learned, that when I want to throw away a sheet of paper, it would have to go into a bag with other waste paper. Once my sheet of paper goes through a shredder though, it somehow miraculously transmutates into something else, which is not paper, and can, therefore, not stay in the paper gomi bag. Goes to burnable gomi, then. :confused:

[Ewok85]

Separation is a joke - with the exception of bottles and cans the "normal" garbage usually is burnt together with the non-burnable.

[ET_Fukuoka]

I get on my mamachari late at night looking for a good mansion to drop it off at...

Or

I bring my trash with me everyday and throw it away at Lawson's.

[Whispah]

I usually hand the garbage to my boyfriend, and suggest that he take it out. A lot less politics to worry about that way :-)

[yukio_michael]

I just took out the garbage on the days that I remembered the colour-coded bags were out... Were I interested enough, I could have walked around and picked up some phone-book sized manga which was always on the curve...

I've been responsible for putting out garbage days before the exact pickup for that particular type of garbage... but so were our neighbors... Japan isn't necissarily a land where everyone follows the rules.

[sicsixsixx]

well I just open the garbage container and put all the crap there

[DoctorP]

I agree with this. When you throw something in the garbage, you are relinquishing ownership of that article. Therefore, any person can go through the garbage you or any other person tosses out, as it is not the property of any individual anymore.


You are partially right. Once you put it on the curb, it is the property of the city, and controlled by the company contracted to pick it up. It is illegal, though you see it at times, for anyone to sort through bagged garbage. Now if you put loose large items out on the curb that is a different story.

[KirinMan]

Separation is a joke - with the exception of bottles and cans the "normal" garbage usually is burnt together with the non-burnable.

Depends on where one lives. Where I live if the trash is not separated the trash pick up people will slap a sticker on the bag and refuse to take it.

Plus we also have to purchase specially marked bags for the town that I live in. We can not use any other bags. The bags a color-coded for the type of trash that they contain.

Blue clear bags for burnables, red clear bags for non-burnables, etc etc.

However depending on the locality different items are considered burnable. For example one city/area here lists PET bottles as burnable because they have a waste disposale center that has an incinerator that burns the trash hot enough that dioxins are not released into the atmosphere. Not so for the town I live in so PET bottles are non-burnable and need to be recycled.

[NekoMama7]

I hear that in some towns, you have to write your name on your bags.

[bakaKanadajin]

I used to live in Kanagawa in a building with several Nova sponsored apartments. Obviously there are those who are able to figure the rules out and those who aren't. But whether it was us or someone else we were often blamed for all the garbage woes anyway. And I didn't see anything wrong with that assumption since every few months someone new moved in and put their garbage out the wrong way. We did try our best though and it wasn't always us.
:relief:

The Japanese neighbours had subtle ways of informing us of our mistakes however. If they found a Vodaphone bill or NOVA paystub in the trash with your gaijin name on it you were a goner, they'd tape it to your door and leave your garbage on the step. We received several notices via the accomodations apartment that if we didn't shape up we'd be evicted.

I think this was all for good reason though, very practical actually. As was pointed out, Japan's a small country geographically and this level of organization is required to reduce accumulation. Also, the crows are so numerous that if you don't put your garbage out at the designated time (as in, first thing in the morning and not the day before or night before) you'll end up with a mess strewn across the street. Everyone pitches in to do the right thing so, the pressure on others to do the same is great as well. One person stepping out of line appears to be a shameful thing for everyone residing in that immediate area and it's taken seriously.