Sunday, July 7, 2013

On trash, sizes, and recycling

One of the things that our group noticed right away is how clean public spaces are.  I have seen a piece of litter here and there, but very, very little.  What is even more remarkable is that there are very few public trash cans.  They were removed after the gas attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.  When we have found waste receptacles, they look something like this.


As the pictures show, people have to separate their trash into the correct recepticle: cans, plastic bottles, and paper.  The purple container may be for things that can be burned, and then there is a smal trash can next to the recycling for what is left over.  What struck me is that this is a very different sense of shared public space from what I saw in India.

When we walked through the Shinagawa neighborhood, it was garbage day, but in reality, garbage pickup happens almost every day because different days are designated for different types of recycling and trash.   

Last night we went to a Softbank Hawks baseball game in Fukuoka, and in my head I was picturing the parking lots around Jack Trice Stadium after an Iowa State football game.  Yet, at the end of the game, the fans carried out their trash to the trash cans and huge trash bags that attendants were watching over.  Certainly not all of the trash was carried out, but a significant portion of it was.  As we walked out at the end of the game, the stadium looked almost as clean as when we arrived.


One more recycling story and a comment on sizes.  One evening when we got done a little early, three of our group went to Asakusa to check out some small shops and a temple.  We stopped at a McDonald's to get something to drink.  I ordered a large soda which is the glass on the left.  Someone else ordered a medium soda which is the glass on the right.  In the States my large would probably be classified as a small.  Drink sizes in general are smaller here, which is not a bad thing.

When we were done with our drinks, the ice went into one waste container, the paper cup went into another, and the straw and lid went into another.  Fortunately there was a gentleman ahead of me who I saw get rid of his glass, so I knew what to do.  As I dumped my ice and sorted my trash, in my head I could imagine all the complaining that Americans would do if they were asked to sort their trash this specifically.  But Japan proves that it certainly is possible.

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