Recycling in Japan, need a little help.

[ThePacster]

Hey guys. I'm currently attending school in Japan and liking it alot. However, by some strange twist of fate, rather than being placed in a dormitory like all the other students, I was placed in sort of a mini-apartment in Kizawa, Toda-shi, Saitama-ken ( 埼玉県戸田市喜沢 ) so I've pretty much figured out everything myself except the recycling. What I know for certain is that they pick up different types of trash on different days that's sorted by combustible, non-combustible, and recyclable trash. Today was the day for recyclables, but I didn't want to look like too big of an idiot so I simply tried to observe the setup. I saw bins for metal cans, PET bottles, glass bottles, spray bottles, and newspapers and cardboard folded and tied up, so that I got. Then I saw maybe one or two actual bags of trash bags filled with things so I was a little stumped.

When going to the grocery store I notice virtually any kind of plastic container or tray like item has the recycling logo with a few letters next to it indicating the type of plastic, but no actual place near the supermarket or outside of my apartment to sort these kinds of items. Would I simply lump together any type of plasic or recyclable item with no designated recycling bin into the trash bags to be put out on recycling days, or is there something I'm missing?

I apologize if this seems like a simple or silly question, but from what I've heard there are quite a few college students who come to Japan and simply throw things out with no regard to policies, so I want to make a good impression even if its in a tiny way.

[Yudan Taiteki]

The details differ from town to town. You can get a guide and a calendar poster from your local city hall but it will probably be in Japanese.

[becki_kanou]

Hey guys. I'm currently attending school in Japan and liking it alot. However, by some strange twist of fate, rather than being placed in a dormitory like all the other students, I was placed in sort of a mini-apartment in Kizawa, Toda-shi, Saitama-ken ( 埼玉県戸田市喜沢 ) so I've pretty much figured out everything myself except the recycling....

You're in luck! Here's a link to your city's recycling information in English. The details of grabage/recycling are on page 3/4 . Remember Google is your friend!

Did you eventually get your train pass figured out?

[fielle]

It's definitely a regional thing--and depending on where you are, you can even find the people who will go through your trash to make sure that you're doing it right and quietly think poorly of you if you do it wrong.

[becki_kanou]

It's definitely a regional thing--and depending on where you are, you can even find the people who will go through your trash to make sure that you're doing it right and quietly think poorly of you if you do it wrong.

I had bad experience with this when I first moved into my current house. The previous tenants left behind a bunch of junk for me to get rid off, and I separted it and bagged it and carted it down to the Gomi station on the appropriate day. I even made sure to buy the regulation municipal trash bags; as our town has special bags for each item: red for PET bottles, blue for burnable and green for unburnable

Now, I had skimmed over the recycling and trash regulations, but not really thoroughly read them, which I admit was my bad. Therefore, I just assumed that a giant (but not too giant to fit in the city trash bags) hard-plastic baby wash tub (too moldy and gross to give away, unfortunately) would be un-burnable rather than burnable and put it in the regulation green bag. When I arrived at the gomi station I was severly scolded for including the tub by an old woman, who then proceeded to look into every bag I was throwing out (there was A LOT of junk from the previous tenants) and tell me in a very nasty way, exactly what I could and could not throw away.

I totally wouldn't have minded if she had explained it nicely, in fact I would have been very grateful for the information, but she was some kidn of gomi-nazi and she made me feel like a criminal for not realizing the full extants and rules of unburnable trash.

/rant over,
But yes, you should be careful about throwing trash away because there are plenty of other gomi-nazis out there.

[ThePacster]

Hey guys. I'm currently attending school in Japan and liking it alot. However, by some strange twist of fate, rather than being placed in a dormitory like all the other students, I was placed in sort of a mini-apartment in Kizawa, Toda-shi, Saitama-ken ( 埼玉県戸田市喜沢 ) so I've pretty much figured out everything myself except the recycling....

You're in luck! Here's a link to your city's recycling information in English. The details of grabage/recycling are on page 3/4 . Remember Google is your friend!

Did you eventually get your train pass figured out?

I know Google is my friend, but I came here when my friend would only show me things in Japanese . And yes, the school helped me sort things out with my train pass shortly after I arrived.