For a laugh- Garbage in Tokyo

A wonderful neighbor of ours sent this email to me:

Dear Bradey,
Just to remind you that GARBAGE DISPOSAL and COLLECTION DAYS will be
changed from OCTOBER 1ST.YEAR 2008.

1).COMBUSTIBLE GARBGE: -- WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS (For New Sorting of Garbage to be included).

2).NON COMBUSTIBLE GARBAGE:-- 1ST and 3RD MONDAYS OF THE MONTH

3).PLASTIC(PET)BOTTLES: -- 2ND and 4TH MONDAYS OF THE MONTH

4).RECYCLABLES: -- ONCE A WEEK TUESDAYS

Rather confusing but we have to live up to it.
Regards TERRY MURAKAMI

We've been adjusting to the garbage collection here, but until now were actually pretty happy with the fact that we now have to carefully sort out- and therefore think about- how much we throw away. The staggering amount of waste we produce is much more "in your face" when you have to sort everything into clear bags rather than just throwing everything in a big plastic garbage can. So, we've been learning a lot about just how much we (people) consume on a regular basis.

Now, Tokyo is running out of space, and apparently, creativity. Previously, they created entirely new areas of land in the bays of Tokyo out of trash, called "reclaimed land." Now that they are running out of areas to "reclaim," we are basically supposed to put everything in our "burnable" garbage. The government claims that burning the garbage produces heat energy for generating electricity and other interesting things as well.

Here is the official word from our city newsletter:
1.) It is expected that the combustion helps to reduce landfill-bound waste by 60% (duh, burning everything means you won't be putting much in landfills or reclaimed land areas). Tokyo metropolitan government estimates that the combustion helps to extend the usable lifetime of the landfill disposal sites by more than 20 years.

2.) The combustion at incineration plants produces heat which can effectively be used for eated (yes, eated) swimming pool. Efficient collection of the heat energy allows generating electric power which helps cut and use more efficiently the operation cost of the incineration plants (the heat from burning the stuff makes burning the other stuff cheaper).

3.) The transportation distace of the total garbage is shortened. This helps greatly reducing the environmental load and the cost (not to mention the fact that we're burning a heck of a lot of garbage).

There are also tips to reduce waste, like using canvas shopping bags (now quite hip in the States), buying refills for detergents/soaps/etc., and recycling what we can. But, we'll continue to watch the trash saga unfold as we adjust to our new Tokyo lifestyle.