Japanese solid waste management

Oh, lordy, it's a complicated thing! Recycling is of major importance here in Japan, and they put a great deal of effort toward making it accessible. It is easy to find ways to recycle, but the onus of cleaning and sorting is upon the citizens and that's where the complexity comes in.

Our local town hall gave us a recycling brochure that is meant to outline things in a clear and easy-to-understand format. Naturally, it's in Japanese. The final pic shows our easy-to-follow schedule (in English!), with the general breakdown of: burnable trash every Tuesday and Thursday regardless of holidays, normal recycling every Tuesday or every Thursday (depending on the month, and except for the last week of every month when there is no recycling collection), special collection days twice a month for large items or things that can't be burned or recycled. Oh, and remember to use the appropriate bag (yellow for burnable, blue for unburnable, transparent or translucent bags for recycling) for each type of waste or you might find it returned to you with a polite note attached! Clear and easy, right?

General overview of what goes where

Items that can't be recycled or burned (note the blue bag)

Paper and clothing preparation on the left,
burnable on the right (note the yellow bag)

Preparation for recyclables

Garbage gets placed between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m.
in the cage seen in the background. Volunteers
are always on hand to help things go smoothly.

Our handy-dandy reference chart