Let's Talk Trash

17 out of October’s 31 days are trash days for us here in Tokushima. That may sound over the top considering 1, maybe 2 days are trash days in the States.  Or in our case in Denver, I had no idea when our trash day was, I put stuff in the dumpster when it started to smell or overfilled the can, and then it disappeared.  We had two bins, one for single stream recycling and one for trash. Easy enough.

Here I have four bins and three piles. In total there are 8 categories that our trash has to be separated into, and we are lucky to live in the city. In nearby town, Kamikatsu, they have 44 categories, with one receptacle sight.

Our categories here include; Burnables, nonburnables, cans and PET plastics (recyclables), plastic bags and packages (plastics), Newspaper, magazines and cardboard ,large garbage, and toxic garbage.

Each item has its own trash day or days and can change from month to month. Good thing we have this calendar or I would forget to put the trash out even more than I do now.

The thing about trash in Japan is that the designation for what goes into which bin and how many bins there are changes everywhere you go. The main idea is that each town is responsible for the management of its waste. For example, Kamikatsu has halved the amount of incinerator-bound garbage and raised its recycled waste to 80 percent. Other towns are still struggling to meet the national average.  

The environmentally friendlier process of sorting and recycling may be more expensive than dumping, experts say, but it is comparable in cost to incineration. With Japan incinerating nearly 80% of its waste the separation method has helped cut costs as well as unwanted gaseous emissions and saved thousands of acres of land for landfills that Japan does not have to spare.

Items that are not burned are recycled. Japan is actually one of the most successful countries at recycling waste. According to the Plastics Waste Management Institute, Japan recycles 77% of all plastic waste. While this is a really high percentage comparatively; the amount of plastics headed into this system is deplorable. 60% of Japan’s total municipal solid waste is containers and packaging. “In 2006, according to the institute, Japan recycled 2.1m tonnes of plastic waste, while 4.8m tonnes undergoes so-called "thermal recycling" which includes conversion into useful chemicals and burning to generate energy.” 

Japan wraps everything in plastic! I was shopping yesterday and picked up some salmon. It was packaged in a foam tray with some green plastic grass (for decoration), wrapped in plastic wrap. At checkout the lady put it into a small plastic bag and then into a plastic grocery bag. That is at least three layers of plastic not counting the tray and plastic decoration. This happens all the time!

I get home and place the wrapping in the appropriate bins and cook my salmon, but what happens when I'm not at home? The public trash can is an illusive creature here, even in Tokushima City. When you do find them they are generally labeled for either paper or PET bottles. If you happen to get a bento at a local combini (convenience store) you scarf it down and then have to haul it around with you all day to find the right trash bin. I have heard many reason for the seemingly nonexistent public trash bins. I was told they were all removed after an explosion in one that indicated some trashcan terrorism. I was also told that due to tightening sorting rules the public bins had mysteriously been overfilling with unsorted trash, and were thusly removed. Whatever the reason it is really difficult to throw things away!! You can find trash receptacles near grocery stores usually, which I just recently learned about but even then you have to figure out what goes where and hope your bento has a home.