Yokohama Recycling Program
I live in Yokohama, which has an insane recycling program. The Yokohama City Government decided that they want to reduce the amount of waste from Yokohama by 30% of the 2001 levels. They hope to acheive this by 2010. Admirable, and yet somewhat scary.
We have four garbage bins in our apartment. The are roughly divided into Household Garbage (burnable), Plastics, PET & Glass Bottles & Cans and Paper.
But it gets more complicated than that. For example, the labels and baps from PET bottles should be put into the Plastics bin and the Paper needs to be sorted into three piles: Newspapers, Cardboard and Other Printed Materials.
There are some non-burnable items which need to be bagged separately, such as ceramics and batteries. Then there’s the Metal Items Smaller Than 30cm category which thankfully I havent’t had to think about yet.
Yokohama City Government released a 13-page booklet complete with cute pictures (as do all manuals and guides in Japan), describing in detail how to recycle. It’s quite a lot of work, especially when the paper needs sorting, all the cartons need cutting and bottles need cleaning.
There are many stories floating around of how garbage that hasn’t been properly sorted gets dumped back on their owner’s doorstep by vindictive neighbours who will actually go through your garbage to ascertain your identity.
One of my students complained to me that her water bill has gone up ever since the recycling program started.
Oh well. Japan doesn’t have a water crisis like Australia. It does have an air pollution problem though. And I guess the less garbage incinerated, the better.
Source:
How to Put Out Your Garbage & Recyclables – Yokohama City Goverment (in English)
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