Recycle...It's complicated.

      Aaahhhh! I fondly remember the days when my recycling consisted of barely rinsing out bottles and jars, and depositing taped up boxes all in the same blue bin, to which I would have one of my children cart out to the street once a week.
     Japan has taken recycling to a whole new level. A wise friend stated, "If Japanese recycling had a relationship status it would read, 'It's complicated.'" They aren't whistling dixie. Don't they know I couldn't even get my husband to throw the recycle in the one size fits all recycle bin when it was right next to the regular trash? They are killing me! Here is a bi-fold out just going over the do's and don'ts.

     We have the normal recycle, cans, glass, paper and plastic (we use a lot of this it has it's own big bin) but we have to clean and sort it all. What?!?
     You have to remove the labels and caps from plastic bottles and they go in seperate (yes seperate) recycle areas. You have to remove the labels from the jars and cans. And not all plastic is created equal some can be burned, some recycled some...well who knows what they do with the rest.
   
     That brings me to the combustable and non-combustable garbage. Japan burns about 50 million tons of garbage annually. I'm currently taking an environmental health class for school. I can't wait until I get to learn about how terrible the air is here. So, what is combustable you ask? Well pretty much anything you can imagine setting fire to that doesn't go into one of 50 (slight dramatization) separate garbage bins. They have a small list of non-combustables, but I don't come across them very often.
     I will have to say I do like that I don't have to go very far to dispose of all of my trash. Just a quick walk out my front door to this handy little area. I put it on it's appropriate shelf close the door and little elves come and collect it while I'm sleeping. It's like magic. They are awesome! I'm sure at some point I'm going to get a letter from said elves telling me how I'm not sorting things correctly. I have had friends here who have gotten them. But until then, they are my peeps, and I'm grateful for their magic.