I just spent the better part of an hour cutting up a bunch of milk and juice cartons so I could tie them together in a bundle. You see, trash can’t simply be thrown away in this country – it has to be sorted and prepped first. I have a whole pamphlet (in Japanese) on how to sort my trash, and a detailed calendar of when each type of trash is picked up.
Ok, so there’s burnables (regular trash – food, clothes, some other stuff – picked up on Mondays and Fridays – that’s the easy stuff), paper (cardboard and things – picked up once every two weeks), plastics (bags, packaging, and stuff – not bottles though – picked up once every two weeks), cartons (need to be washed, cut flat, and tied together – picked up once a month), metal (aluminum has to be separated from steel – picked up once a month), plastic bottles (the labels need to be peeled off (those are plastic) – picked up once a month), glass bottles (clear bottles, brown bottles, and other colored bottles need to be in separate bags – picked up once a month), and, finally, broken glass and lightbulbs (picked up once every three months). That’s eleven separate places that trash needs to be stored before it gets picked up (I have a trash can for burnables, a special blue mesh bag for plastics, a blue tub for plastic bottles, a bag for steel, a bag for aluminum, etc…). It’s ridiculous.
Plus, I keep forgetting when certain things need to go out. Last month, I missed ‘carton’ day, so I had a huge pile up while waiting for the next pickup date. I keep forgetting to put out my plastics. The paper’s been piling up. My house is full of trash. If it gets much worse, I’m just gonna drive it over to the convenient store and stealthily deposit it in their trash cans…
Did I mention that there are no trashcans in this country? Only outside convenient stores and other select places. Even on the streets in Tokyo. Need to throw something away? Are you in a building or on a street? Tough. No trash cans. Can you imagine that? If there weren’t trashcans every half-block in New York or any other American city, people would just throw their trash in the street. Only Japanese people are polite enough to carry their trash around with them, and then hoard it in neat little piles in their houses.
5 comments:
Haha I remember you being afraid of this before you left.
I love it. That's so responsible of them. I think it's weird that we don't take the time to deal with our trash. But you should get on the ball with the pick up days
you wouldn't love it if you had to do it...
the goal is to not get arrested. you could surreptitiously put it outside a neighbor's apt [of course being careful to eliminate any and all traces of "american" trash]
shit, that sounds so confusing to keep track of! no wonder you have such a trash build up at your place! ...but don't you notice which trash your neighbors put out? maybe observing their trash habits will help you?
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