Recycle, Recycle, Recycle!

Recycling in Japan is quite an undertaking. I thought Washington was big into recycling; they can't come anywhere near Japan! You won't believe this, but I have 9 different bags to sort my garbage into. Mother, you never liked it when I had my ONE recycle box in my kitchen, you cannot imagine now! My bag of actual waste (they call this "burnables") is so tiny it's unbelievable. If they had garbage disposals here it would be even smaller. I have a bag for anything plastic (which seems to be 90% of my garbage every week, everything in Japan is wrapped in plastic of some sort!), a bag for anything paper, a bag for cans, a bag for plastic bottles (they call them PET bottles), a bag for anything not burnable (ceramic bowl, broken umbrella, etc), I also have to separate all glass bottles, corrugated cardboard, and milk/juice containers, and newspapers, all of which must be taken down the street weekly to a designated drop-off. Now I know you are thinking, why bother? If you don't sort your garbage correctly they give you a warning, then they will fine you! If you continue, they will refuse to pick up your garbage anymore! I think the Japanese are serious about their recycling! I appreciate the philosophy to take care of the environment and the results are clearly worth. Japan is the cleanest place I've ever seen. They don't have the land for huge landfills like the US does. So, we recycle! It is really crazy though, our first few weeks here, we were so stressed out about which bag a piece of garbage goes into! You say, "It can't be that difficult Shawn." NOT! You would not believe how confusing it can become. I think we've got it down now, but we do have our moments. More later!