Crazy Rubbish

The rubbish system in Japan is too crazy not to write about, so I thought that I had better fill you in on it. If you think that when all the recycling bins came to Adelaide and we had to sort out all of our rubbish was crazy, then think again. Adelaide’s rubbish system is a piece of cake compared to here. I never thought that I would have to think so much about rubbish. In Adelaide it is only once a week that you have to take the rubbish out, well here in Japan pretty much every second day is rubbish day. Everything has to be sorted here. There is one bin for burnables which is like food scraps etc, one bin is for plastics – so that means styrofoam, plastic wrappers, chip packets (anything plastic) and there is one bin for paper which has to go in a paper bag. So already you have to think about 3 different things. Then on top of that you have to recycle plastic bottles, milk cartons, glass bottles – now milk cartons have to be washed and cut so they are flat, plastic bottles need to have the lid and label off (and put into plastics) and glass bottles have to be sorted into clear, brown and coloured. Then food tins like canned tomatoes, corn, tuna etc have to also be put into a separate rubbish bin. Hard rubbish such as chairs, tables basically most things that you want to get rid of go out once every 2 weeks but again they all need to be sorted into different areas – metal, material etc……Burnables go out twice a week, plastic goes out once a week and paper goes out every 2 weeks. You have to remember what day is what so that you don’t miss it. I never thought that rubbish could be so complicated! If we get it wrong we get big reminders from our boss. It is a very crazy system but I suppose once you get used to it it’s ok. I think it will take me a while to work it all out.