My Other Part-Time Job: Recycling in Japan
Brian--or Mr. Green as I often call him--should feel right at home in Japan if for no other reason than the fact that Japan is very eco-friendly, as is he. However, as I often tease him, there are some inconsistencies to his "green-ness." The first of which may be that we own an SUV. That of course, is partly my fault. But another inconsistency is that I am actually the recycling guru of this family! And that is no simple feat in Japan. It is truly a part-time job.

Soon after we moved to Japan and began to live offbase, I told Brian, "If when you leave the house in the morning, you are not carrying a bag of some type of garbage, then you are forgetting something!" I'm not kidding. Five days a week and one Saturday a month there is some type of garbage pick-up. I pack it up and he brings it out.

Why so many days of garbage pick-up? Well, in Japan, we must separate our trash into five categories. We have burnable items; nonburnable items ("land fill"); glass, PET bottles and cans; plastic containers and packaging; and recyclable papers, cardboard, milk cartons, etc.

There is literally a book to study in order to prepare your garbage appropriately for pick-up. There are special bags (clear, white or paper) to use depending on the type of garbage. You must bundle some items with string. And except for the burnable items (which thankfully includes diapers), everything must be rinsed clean. My favorite recycling duty is cutting open the toothpaste tube and rinsing out the remaining toothpaste. (There's actually a lot left in what seems like an empty tube, you'd be suprised.)

The trash bags are to be put out at a designated location on our block. Our housing agent showed us where to put ours; around the corner on the street behind our house. So, you don't necessarily put trash in front of your own house. Nor is the designated pile necessarily the closest pile to your house. Since no one likes a big pile of trash in front of their house indefinitely, Japanese neighborhoods have small communities that take turns "hosting" the garbage pick-up location for the year usually. It is that person's job to sweep up any garbage that might have spilled onto the street. So far, it's been 7 months and no one in our neighborhood has told us about this, so we are playing dumb and will wait to be told when it's our turn!

After all this, you may be wondering what happens if we don't comply with these recycling regulations? It is very easy to identify a foreigner by his trash, with the clear plastic bags providing a window into the remnants of our lives. Coca Cola cans, need I say more? (Japanese Coke cans are half the size of ours and we have twice as many in our trash.) And if your trash is improperly sorted, you will find the bag placed on your lawn for everyone to see you screwed up. So far, we have been lucky. Or perhaps I have been doing such a great job as "lead recycler" so as to not disgrace ourselves--at least not regarding the garbage!