Garbage sorting in Japan
A major stressful chore during my long stay in Tokyo last year was compartmentalising my garbage. ? I remembered how the building management emphasized on this house chore during key collection on my first day. And, I went blur ?at this instruction sheet.
Even in the apartment, this instruction note is already laminated and pasted on the kitchen wall above the dustbins to remind you over and over again. The first few days were stressful especially since I had a lot of rubbish as I settled down. Admittedly, I even cheated a couple of times by bringing my small pack of rubbish to throw in the school general bin. ?
However, with practice, I soon ease easily into the role and appreciate the recycling efforts. It’s amazing but sometimes I’ll grin with pride after throwing in the washed, dried and crushed water bottles in the clear garbage bag. Every little efforts of recycling counts and we can all do our bit starting from our own household! As such, do make an effort to compartmentalism your garbage if you are staying in an Airbnb in Japan. It is really a very important issue for the neighbourhood! Of course, it will be even better if you can bring the good habit back home! Well, I did for a short while… maybe I should start to do it again in Singapore. ?
Below is a youtube video that teaches you how to do the cleaning and sorting of garbage before throwing them away. And don’t just dump all the trash altogether! Apparently there are different collection days depending on the type of garbade.
The Japanese had been doing this for years and the habit is instilled in children since pre-school. Similar to other etiquette and good manners, there is much for us to learn from the Japanese.
