Recycling in Japan

 

In today’s issue of TIME magazine I came across this most interesting article about The Japanese Way of conservation. Having just visited Japan I was amazed to see the amount of recycling, the number of windmills, and a more health-conscious attitude towards smoking.

Years ago – in the early 90s – trash was not seen as a pollutant yet. There was no separation of trash, and it was freely produced. Just buying a bread roll in a bakery required two paper wrappings and a plastic bag. I learned early on to tell the clerk: “Iie, gomi ni naru.” (No, this becomes trash). I was often stared at with big eyes as things usually would not get refused in a shop.
The concept of trash also was different whether inside one’s home or outside on public property. One just did not dispose of trash at one’s friend’s home. One would take the empty soda can and just dump it in the street. I was once scolded by a Japanese businessman for having left an empty book of matches on the table of a restaurant. He told me it was a no-no to leave it behind; instead he picked up and dumped it on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. His act put things into a new perspective. The sidewalk and open roads became a dumping ground for trash. On the other hand, being German, this was especially weird to see coming from a country where the Saturday sweeping-the-sidewalk is mandatory for house owners.
In my early days – with little paying work and living in a rabbit hutch— I found myself annoyed with all the discarded trash on the road leading up to our apartment building on the foot of the hill. So every morning, on my way to the green grocer’s, I would be equipped with some plastic bags and tongs to pick up all the trash left behind. I could see the neighbors sticking their heads together in disbelief. After a few days, one of them finally took the courage to ask me what I was doing with it. I told them in my early-stage Japanese:” Nihon ga kireina kuni desu. Soto no gomi ga dame desu.” (Japan is a pretty country. Outside trash is not OK) Forgive my rudimentary Japanese. But I had to make my point.
In a way I guess I had put the Japanese to shame or opened their eyes. After 10 days of my morning ritual I was approached by one neighbor who told me the local TV station NHK would come out to do a report on me. Well, that is when I stopped my activity and the Japanese, living in our street, cleaned up their act as well.

Nowadays some Japanese are even concerned about keeping their trash clean.
This time around on my visit, I saw the host’s daughter washing out our empty beer cans. When I questioned her about her motives, I was told dirty cans would otherwise make for a sticky trash bag. Wow! They have come a long way.
I have to admit I used to wash out the empty yoghurt cups, too. But I stopped when I came to Germany. Wasting water on trash was not wise.

Taking the train around Kyushu gave us plenty of opportunity to see Japan’s windmills. I was so used to see them in my birthplace of Lower Franconia, but never suspected to find them in Japan as well. Japan is becoming more energy efficient partly due to wind farms.

The attitude towards smoking has changed, too. Airports are mostly smoke-free with some only allowing certain areas OUTSIDE to be designated as a Smoking Area. Starting May 1, there is a new regulation for cigarette buyers to show proof of age 18 when buying cigarettes.

vending machine

The blue sign on the bottom right tells buyers how to insert proof of age

At the train station in Arita, they had a glass-walled smoking room sitting right there between two platforms. This was the foggiest thing I had seen in a long time.

Trackbacks

  1. […] few nights ago I was out with a good friend of mine and she mentioned my post about Recycling in Japan, in which I wrote about having washed out yogurt cups before putting them in the yellow trash bag […]

  2. […] Who would have believed the Japanese would ever turn to such drastic measures in recycling? When I lived there 15 years ago, trash was treated as badly as a stray dog. In the little street where I used to live, people just used the whole street as a dumping ground – at least that was my impression back then. Having returned to Japan for the first time in April 2008, I was amazed to see how much more environmentally conscious the Japanese had become in recycling. […]

Speak Your Mind

*

Diese Webseite verwendet Cookies. Wenn Sie auf der Seite weitersurfen, stimmen Sie der Cookie-Nutzung zu. Mehr Informationen

Diese Webseite verwendet so genannte Cookies. Sie dienen dazu, unser Angebot nutzerfreundlicher, effektiver und sicherer zu machen. Cookies sind kleine Textdateien, die auf Ihrem Rechner abgelegt werden und die Ihr Browser speichert. Die meisten der von uns verwendeten Cookies sind so genannte "Session-Cookies". Sie werden nach Ende Ihres Besuchs automatisch gelöscht. Cookies richten auf Ihrem Rechner keinen Schaden an und enthalten keine Viren. Weitere Informationen finden Sie auf der Seite “Datenschutzerklärung”.

Close