Okay, I’ve been meaning to write about trash and recycling since I got here in April. In Japan, even such a standard topic has its cultural twists and turns.

When I lived here 10 years ago, the trash and the recyclables were collected on different days, with all of the recyclables going out together in one bag, presumably to be sorted elsewhere. Every neighborhood had a spot where people just piled their bags of trash on the curb for pickup. After the trucks had come and gone, you’d see a local woman out there sweeping up the street around the collection point.

There was also what the ex-pats called Big Gomi day, gomi being ‘trash’ in Japanese, when everything from bicycles to TVs could be kicked to the curb and carted away. I once saw an electric organ being crushed into a garbage truck that was almost the same size as the organ. REALLY big gomi...

A lot of the time, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the stuff. It had just been replaced by newer models. I’ve heard stories of gaijin furnishing their apartments with Big Gomi day finds. I confess to having once rescued a guitar stand from the trash. Oh, yeah. I did grab a discarded bicycle, too, when I had a visitor that needed transportation. That could have actually caused me some trouble because it turns out the owner’s name was painted on the rear fender - like with most bicycles here, I found out - and all bicycles are supposed to be licensed. If I had been stopped by the police, I would have had some ‘splaining to do. Well, not me. My friend was riding it... This naming and licensing of bikes makes their abandonment at the train stations even more difficult to understand.

Anyway, now Big Gomi day seems to be a thing of the past. It’s been replaced by small pickup trucks cruising around with looped recorded messages saying, “Bring out your big gomi” or the equivalent. Very annoying, but I guess efficient enough.

The authorities were then also just starting to eliminate the use of black trash bags and require clear bags so that what was in the bags could be seen. That seemed like a hassle to me, not least of all because I had a new box of black bags and nowhere to use them. I couldn’t have imagined where it was all leading.

My first week back, I couldn’t find a place to leave my trash and it was starting to pile up a bit. I asked Yoh-san what I was missing and he came back with three or four pages of instructions for me on how to sort and send my trash.

First, it depended on which side of the tracks I lived on. We got that worked out and I found the trash storage area for my apartment under the back stairs. Now all I had to do was sort my trash into seven different categories and check the calendar every day to see which type of garbage the trashmen had agreed to receive that day.

The categories are basically burnable and nonburnable. Nonburnable, though, is divided into; recyclable plastic bottles (PET designated, whatever that means); other plastics; recyclable paper; glass; aluminum; batteries, light bulbs and thermometers (!); and miscellaneous such as hair dryers and knives, which are pictured on the printout to avoid confusion. That’s also how I know thermometers go with light bulbs instead of with miscellaneous. There's a picture of a thermometer in that category. Do NOT put the plastic bottle caps in with the plastic bottles, oh no, because they’re made from a different kind of plastic and, so, go with ‘other plastics’.

The paper needs to be tied into bundles and the rest has to be separated into two separate kinds of bags - clear bags for everything except burnable trash which is put into semi-clear bags. Why, you may ask? Haven’t the slightest idea, I would reply. I have a theory, but only a theory, that you can put trash into semi-clear bags because that’s the kind that you get from the supermarkets and it gives those bags an aftermarket use, if you’ll forgive the pun.

What would happen if you put burnable trash in a clear bag, I dare not think.

Of course, this necessitates a trip to the store to buy packages of the proper bags which cannot be distinguished between just by looking at the packages they come in. It requires some knowledge of kanji, of which I have little, and/or questions in Japanese, in which I can’t seem to make the problem understood, so I now have three packages of semi-clear bags, which I don’t need because I can use the supermarket bags, one package of bags which seems to fall somewhere between semi-clear and clear, which is confusing, and just two (2) individual clear bags which I need the most and can’t seem to buy.

One of the other American teachers at my university lives in an area that requires red and yellow bags in some other bizarre scheme that I don’t understand. Come to think of it, red and yellow would be better than clear and semi-clear. I have a feeling, though, that red and yellow bags are in addition to the clear and semi-clear ones, adding another layer to the mystery.

The pictures here, and the one at the top, are on the trash receptacles at the university. Basically, it’s the same process of sorting as I do at home, but these are a bit more specific. You can see where to dispose of your t-shirts and your 2X4s, your sweaters, your socks and your shoes. T-shirts and 2X4s go in the same bin for some reason, but sweaters and socks need to be separated from shoes. Well, of course.

Apparently, Japanese students are in the habit of throwing away their clothes and their construction leftovers at school and some order needed to be imposed on the process.

It’s nice to know that there is recycling going on here, even if it is hard for a foreigner (well, anyway, this foreigner) to figure out. I have to admit, it’s made me aware of the huge amount of trash I generate just by myself and with awareness will come improvement. At least, I hope so, for myself, for Japan and for the rest of the world.