Garbage Madness

In Japan there are strict rules for when and what type of garbage you can put out for collection. For example, our Togoshi area has the following rule:

Tuesdays – Non-Combustibles (not suitable for burning)
Wednesdays and Saturdays – Combustibles
Fridays – Recyclables

Seems easy enough? Not so. Non-Combustibles include plastic and vinyl stuff. This means that when we get deli food from a grocery store (which is often), food scraps go to Combustibles and plastic tray that food came in goes to Non-Combustibles.

Recyclables are more fun. It includes cans, bottles, papers, and PET bottles (the kind like water bottles), and each category has to be in own bag. Papers include juice and milk cartons - we need to tear it open, rinse it & dry it before putting away. PET bottles are the ridiculous one of all – because, you see, cap and plastic cover label are Non-Combustibles but PET bottles themselves are recyclable! So, every time we have a drink that comes in a PET bottle (which is almost every day), we have to peel plastic cover label and put it away in a Non-Combustible bag together with cap, and a naked bottle goes in a different bag. Why can someone come up with a PET bottle with labels printed on it or something???

Thus, we currently have 5 different bags/containers in our tiny kitchen to combat this garbage madness – Combustibles, Non-Combustibles, cans, bottles, papers, and PET bottles.

Grrrrrrr!