Gomi was one of the first Japanese words I learned when I arrived. It means garbage, generally. But there are all kinds of gomi, as I sooned learned! The garbage system is very complicated here, so I have been waiting to post this blog until I figured it out. For the most part I think I have.
Garbage is so complicated it needs its own poster which I keep on the fridge for frequent reference! (You can click on the photo to zoom in.)
To give you an idea of the complications, here is the schedule for garbage pickup:
Burnable garbage - Wednesday and Saturday
Plastic garbage - Friday
Paper garbage - 1st and 3rd Friday of the month
Large garbage - every two weeks
Things like TVs and other electronics cannot be put out. You have to pay to recycle those.
With a schedule like that, I wonder most nights which garbage I need to put out for the next day: "is tomorrow paper?" And we here at Shirasagi remind each other: "don't forget, it's dai-gomi night".
First is the burnable garbage. It has to be put in special garbage bags which we buy at the grocery or drug store (they're very cheap). I like to think that the bags are made of some special plastic that won't release dioxin when burned... but that might just be wishful thinking. Japan doesn't have much space for landfills so most garbage is burned if it can't be recycled.
Plastic garbage is pretty straightforward, though there is a lot of it. The Japanese LOVE packaging. It's common to buy, let's say a package of cookies, something like Chips Ahoy for example. Every single cookie inside the package is wrapped individually!! Every cookie! And there is usually one of those crystal packets to suck up moisture in the package too! So you can easily generate a LOT of plastic waste every week. Plastic garbage also has a special garbage bag that has to be bought (cheaply) at a grocery or drug store.
Paper garbage is a bit complicated for me, having been used to the ever-changing paper recycling rules at the Q. I'm still not sure if magazines or glossy paper or colored paper can be recycled... Paper garbage is to be put into a paper shopping bag (from any major department store).
Then there's the "large garbage" (dai-gomi). It's the most confusing of all for us foreigners, because it includes little things like tin cans, plastic PET bottles, newpaper, cardboard, batteries, milk cartons etc. But it can also include big things like bikes, furniture, and used clothing.
It's perfectly acceptable to go dumpster diving on dai-gomi day. You never know what you might find! And each neighborhood sends a representative to oversee the collection. Our apartment building custodian gets that task on our behalf!
Here are a couple photos of our dai-gomi collection point.
And here's a photo of my garbage collection system in the hallway kitchen - there's the poster for easy reference; the green bag is for plastic; the black bins below are for dai-gomi; the paper bag for paper; and the garbage can for burnable. It gets really complicated and often I don't know where something ought to go.
So now you know about garbage in Japan. I think you know everything I wanted to tell you about Japan now! Just in time, because this might be my last posting, except perhaps for one last good-bye blog. And especially timely since I'm almost out of space on blogger!
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