{"id":2664,"date":"2009-09-01T13:38:46","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T21:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2018-02-02T19:43:09","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T19:43:09","slug":"trash-day-in-tokyo-the-learning-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/09\/01\/trash-day-in-tokyo-the-learning-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"Trash Day in Tokyo: The Learning Curve"},"content":{"rendered":"

KQED’s Los Angeles Bureau Chief and frequent Climate Watch contributor Rob Schmitz is spending six weeks in Japan, as part of\u00a0 the Abe Fellowship for Journalists. In the weeks to come he’ll file a series of special reports on Japan’s extraordinary strides in energy efficiency–and what we might learn from them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today was combustible garbage day in my neighborhood. On Tuesdays and Fridays, residents place all their garbage deemed \u2018burnable\u2019 out on the curb. At promptly 8 a.m., it is taken away and, presumably, burned.<\/p>\n

\"Burn
Burn after reading? Trash day instructions in Japan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had a lot of questions about what was considered combustible and the sign on the light post advertising the pick-up days wasn\u2019t very helpful. My wife and I brought our 11-month-old son here. Were diapers considered \u2018burnable\u2019? I knocked on the Webers’ door to ask. Terry and Sherry Weber live next door. They\u2019ve been working as teachers in Tokyo for 27 years. They told me that up until recently, plastic products were not considered burnable items, but all of that changed this year, and now it\u2019s apparently fine to deposit plastic items like diapers on the curb on combustible garbage day. Either way, they told me, if the sanitation officials see that I\u2019ve tried to sneak in some non-combustibles on the incorrect day, they\u2019d leave it on the curb with a note, scolding me for screwing it all up.<\/p>\n

I put a bag of diapers and another bag of what I thought were burnable items on the curb, nervous that I\u2019d be the laughing stock of my new neighborhood. An hour later, the garbage truck arrived, two men got out, inspected my garbage, and dumped all of it into the back of their truck.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The dreaded Tokyo city sanitation department gives me a passing grade on my burnable\/non-burnable garbage sorting skills.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whew. Now I\u2019ve got to prepare for Thursday, which is recyclables day. I\u2019m supposed to separate all of my recyclables into paper, cardboard, plastic, and cans, and bundle each of them with string. Wish me luck.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the waste disposal front:<\/p>\n

I usually don\u2019t get excited about toilets. But the toilet in my apartment here in Tokyo has inspired me to great heights.<\/p>\n

\"\"
It doesn’t look exciting. But look more closely…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The toilet gives the user two types of flushes: the \u2018big\u2019 flush, or the \u2018small\u2019 flush, so that you can control how much water you\u2019ll need, thereby conserving this precious resource.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Parched water districts of California: Please start importing these for your customers!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But that\u2019s not what got me excited. What I was really impressed by was when you flush the toilet, water is pumped into the tank at the back of the toilet via a faucet. It runs into a basin on top of the tank where you can wash your hands with the water before it enters the toilet for the next flush. Genius. Pure genius. Why don\u2019t we see more of these in California, where water is an even more precious resource than it is here?<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: Dual-flush toilets<\/a> are now available in California. But the piggy-back sink–that’s a new one for me. –CM
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s see. Disposable diaper: burn it or bury it? For a new arrival in Japan, life is full of such dilemmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11416,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[298,306,462,579,609,652,654],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-2664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water","tag-international","tag-japan","tag-recycling","tag-technology","tag-trash","tag-waste","tag-water"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nTrash Day in Tokyo: The Learning Curve | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/09\/01\/trash-day-in-tokyo-the-learning-curve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trash Day in Tokyo: The Learning Curve | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let's see. 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