Our trash system in LA’s SO different than in Tokyo. This I found out because Yoshi, a Japanese environmentalist who writes for Greenz, emailed me about a week ago saying he and his wife Sawa’ll be town and would like to chat ’bout environmentalism in LA.
That email led to a long, engrossing conversation about trash, environmentalism, LOHAS, hikikomori, and urban birth rates over drinks at Yankee Doodle’s (chosen for proximity to Yoshi and Sawa’s hotel) on Wednesday.
Trash is fascinating, yes? If you live in the LA area, you’re most likely familiar with the green, blue, and black bins — fairly simple, in my view. Yoshi and Sawa seemed to think their system was pretty simple too — but you tell me. Here’s how they separate their trash in Tokyo, as per Yoshi and Sawa’s description:
* Burnables – non-recyclable paper (i.e. food packaging), food waste
* Non-burnables — most plastic bags, non-recylable plastics
* Recyclable paper
* Clothes
* Glass bottles
* Plastic bottles (PET) — But bottle caps go in burnables
* Soda cans
I guess it’s the burnables vs. non-burnables thing that threw me for a loop — I asked Yoshi and Sawa dozens of questions as to what would fit into each category. Dude — it’s complicated.
But Sawa and Yoshi say that, because this info — including the importance of sorting one’s trash — gets inculcated into the minds of students at the elementary school level, sorting one’s trash just becomes second nature.
What motivates people to recycle? I asked. Apparantly, it’s a mix of early education, civic duty, economic motivations (it costs individuals about a buck per bag of trash), and peer pressure. Sawa says no one will come knocking on her door if she doesn’t sort her trash properly, but her neighbors could easily figure out she was the culprit messing up the system. There seems to be some fears of societal rejection that encourages proper recycling in Tokyo.
If only the same were true in the US –
If, unlike me, you can read Japanese, check out Greenz, which Yoshi describes as “citizen-driven media for sustainable society from Japan.” They cover some US events, like Burning Man.
Sawa and Yoshi also run a joint website, whynotnotice, which has a section on their own chapbook-style magazine called Wit. They printed just 500 copies, and I now have one :) Each recipient’s invited to sign a lil card, which Yoshi and Sawa are keeping in a lil signature album of sorts –
