Sorting garbage is one of the worst things about living in Japan. Japan has made almost every day a different kind of Garbage Day and there are so many different things to remember about every kind of garbage that you know this system wouldn't work at all in any other country.Every area of Japan has completely different garbage days, division systems and garbage rules . Japanese Garbage is loosely divided into three categories. Burnable garbage (燃えるごみ moeru gomi) , unburnable garbage (燃えないごみ) and recyclable garbage (資源ごみ shigen gomi). On top of this, there are other special days for cans (缶), plastic (ペットボトル /プラスチック) , glass (瓶) and large waste (粗大ごみ).
At the last place I lived, here were the rules. 燃えるごみ is taken out every Monday and Thursday. 燃えないごみ is taken out every Tuesday and Friday. 資源ごみ is taken out every second and fourth Wednesday. 粗大ごみ is taken out on the last Thursday and the first Tuesday of every month. Easy, right? And you can't put your garbage out the night before. You have to put it out that morning before 8 AM. So if you want to stay at your friend's house on the last Tuesday of the month, you have to realize that your 資源ごみ will be sitting in your house for the next two weeks because you missed the day. If it's 8:02 AM, you missed the garbage day. Better luck in two weeks, man.
Another great thing is that the garbage must be put into different bags. These bags (指定ごみ袋 shitei gomi-bukuro) can be purchased at certain convenience stores. They are marked with the name of the type of garbage and they have a special color for each type of garbage.
Ridiculous Garbage Story
Once, I had the 燃えるごみ all sorted out and ready to go, but when I looked in the drawer, I found I had run out of the special translucent 燃えるごみ bags and had only the blue ones left. I put the 燃えるごみ in the clear blue bag figuring that as long as it was all sorted 燃えるごみ it wouldn't matter what color the trash bag was. But it did. I was not allowed to put the bag in the garbage. (The man guarding the trash area made that big X DAME!! sign with his hands when he saw me coming with the wrong color) I had to run to the convenience store to buy the right colored bag. By the time I came back and transferred the trash, it was 5 past 8:00 and I had missed Garbage Day.
Your neighbors are all super serious about it. If you accidentally leave a lid on your old tea bottle (the lids and wrappers go in the 燃えないごみ section and the bottle part goes in the ペットボトル section and both are taken out on different days and in different bags) your neighbors will complain. I have never had this happen, but I heard that in rural areas, all residents must write their names on the trash bags and if there's any trash that has been sorted in the wrong way, it is personally returned to you by your neighbors.
Also, once the trash is out of your house, anyone can open it up and sort through it.
If you're getting rid of any secret/embarrassing things this is good to remember.
Also, you know that blue net that the plastic / recyclable garbage gets put out under? Don't touch the net with your bare hands (or if you must, wash them thoroughly afterwards) because the blue net is sprayed every other day with a really powerful chemical to keep germs / cockroaches away from the garbage area. My neighbors use special gloves to touch it.
A few days, I've slept in on garbage day and discreetly thrown my garbage away at the convenience store garbage cans. I know this isn't great, but I just can't keep bags of garbage sitting in my house. It's too depressing. At least I always sort it, though.
Is this as ridiculous to you as it is to me? I hate garbage days.
13 comments:
Actually... I think maybe they take it a bit too far, but the Japanese garbage system is one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly in the world. So, all in all, it seems like a good thing. It would be nice if they were more flexible, though. Just for the sake of the residents!
Very true! Garbage day in Japan is a very regimented affair indeed...a friend of mine once put her gomi out in the semi-rural area of Saitama only to have the old woman next door suddenly come out and question her as to the exact contents of the bag!(Foreigners don't sort trash properly apparently...same old story) This is extreme though, I never had anyone checking through my trash in Japan...I must have a nice face...
By the way, England now has the same system in some areas, including the one I now live in, and it definitely isn't working at all! (The trash men don't come very often!)
I would cry if I had to deal with Japanese garbage full time. The first time I encountered the Japanese garbage sorting system was in a McDonald's in Tokyo. It was extensive.
It just makes me aware that I have no idea what happens to my garbage and recycling after it leaves my house!
even if this is not by tomorrow im going to living in Japan with my Boyfriend, this is definitly something that "freaks" me out, because i know how crazy it can be. our japanese teachers told us about it, an some other friends from there too.
i hope i wont have any problems with that when it will be my turn XD
I hate garbage weeks in Japan, too.
Never heard of the differently colored bags, though. I just use clear white bags for everything.
And my garbage people aren't nearly as picky about garbage, since I usually leave lids on.
My neighbors probably aren't as mean as yours are, either, because the one time my trash had been left, it just sat there until I came home that evening.
And I leave my garbage out the night before all the time (I usually wait until right before I go to bed, between midnight and 3 AM) and nobody has said anything.
And where in God's name did you live?! Kunitachi's weekly garbage cycle is every day of the week, getting rid of all your garbage within a week, not two! That would suck!
...and yes, my husband is Japanese, so I'm not just a hermit and ignoring my neighbors, I did have somebody to tell me how to do it once I got here. Hmm :/
Wow! your place is strict. My area just has moeru and moenai gomi days on different days of the week. Other than that you take your recyclables to the recycle center. We don't have to put our name on bags and there is no one guarding/watching the garbage area. I think I would go crazy if I had to do jump through all those hoops like you do.
Whoa i never thought the garbage system is quite tedious there. I like Germany's garbage system but to have color coded garbage bag but each type is very tedious, how do you cope with that?
the whole thing seems expensive and wasteful, especially because I know how much packaging they give you there when you just go shopping for groceries. It's totally ridiculous.
People are becoming more eco-aware, and the recycling system is part of that. It sure is a pain but... you get used to it. I'd much rather have all this recycling than none. I've lived in places without recycling and felt like I was living in the stone age.
That's TRUE.
In Thailand, throwing a bottle in the garbage made me pretty sad.
I really think it's great to recycle. I just felt like complaining about how strict things are here.
Please understand that at the end of the day, I do think it's GREAT what Japan does with the garbage.
I also hate Garbage Day. No one guards the trash, where I live, but they should. I'm the only gaijin living in my apartment building, but it seems that NO ONE here separates their trash properly. I always feel that the trash ppl will think it's me!
I always imagined that they took both kinds of gomi and just burned it all. lol! I remember reading about gomi shaming and how some people have such anxiety about it that they sneek their trash out and put it in a combini trash can or they just keep it in their apartment like those ladies in that movie wool 100% but less artistic and more depressing.
Thanks for participating in Decorative Dumpster Day! Reporting on the absence of decorated dumpsters is just as important as reporting on their existence.
Leila
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