Above our sink is a calendar with about half a year charted out on it. Each day is labeled with what type of garbage you may take out that day. If you take out any other kind, the people who pick up the garbage will leave it behind when they come.
The categories are burnable (tissues, papers, cereal boxes, food scraps), plastic, cloth and cardboard, recyclable bottles, and non-burnable. If cardboard is small enough, it counts as burnable. The bottles must be without lids and labels. There are also a few other various small categories that are picked up once a month or so -- batteries and such.
On most Mondays and Wednesdays, burnable trash is picked up. Most Tuesdays and Thursdays are for plastic. Every other week there is a day for bottles, and Friday tends to be either non-burnable, battery, or cardboard and cloth trash take out.
I see where this is probably a very good idea, but it’s been a little confusing here and there. At least we quickly discovered that pretty much anything you buy in Japan will have a small symbol on it somewhere that indicates what kind of trash is.
When we’re still in doubt, I ask my co-workers.
(From left to write, the little symbols mean - steel, paper (burnable), recycle, plastic, aluminum.)
Woah, interesting...
ReplyDeleteI like the system, but acclimating to it would be obnoxious! Especially after living in Utah(or at least in Provo) where nothing is recycled. I'd be really tempted to just put everything out on Monday and let them take it when they want. Heh. You should make a video/take pictures of your apt and post them! =3
ReplyDeleteXD We just got our first recycling bins at our apartments on Friday, and I thought separating trash and recycle was complicated!
ReplyDelete