Getting to zero: the Japan town trying to recycle all its waste

[Jim__]

From phys.org:

Plastic, paper, metal? In Japan's Kamikatsu, sorting rubbish isn't that simple. Residents face a mind-boggling 45 separate categories for their garbage as the town aims to be "zero-waste" by 2020.

And that's not all: there isn't even trash collection. The 1,500 residents of the town in western Japan have to transport their waste themselves to a local facility.

"Yes, it's complicated," said Naoko Yokoyama, a 39-year-old resident who had brought her trash to the town's waste centre.

"But I have become more environmentally conscious since I moved here a year ago," she told AFP.

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[Sherman A1]

1. K&R

[Control-Z]

2. I walked to the grocery store last night

and had a plastic bottle with me from tea I'd been drinking. Right outside the grocery entry doors they have containers for recycling plastic grocery bags. So I assumed they had, and asked where they kept, recycling bins for plastic bottles. I was told, "Oh, no, we don't have those." "I can throw that away for you though."

Really? How difficult could that possibly be for local businesses to put a damned recycling bin outside their doors? Like right next to the trash cans they all have out. There's a redemption center (unfortunately, with very limited hours) right outside in the same parking lot. This is Huntington Beach in So Cal, FFS.

My daughter who lives in Republican red Utah is required, by law, to sort her own trash into four individual receptacles (which she has to pay to use) before they put it out on the street for pickup.

What is wrong with us?

[kat3rinamarquez]

3. WOW

I hope this will be implemented everywhere in the planet. I believe that awareness + discipline are one of the strongest factors we can use to really help out our waste management. Not only are we helping the future generation but we're also practicing discipline within ourselves.

[llmart]

4. Americans have very little self-discipline.

I think the only time they sit up and take notice is when it hits their pocketbooks/wallets. I have always advocated for charging by the pound for their trash pickup. Then see how quickly and more thoughtful they would be about what they put out at the curb.

There are people in my neighborhood that get their panties all in a twist when a guy comes through with a pickup truck the night before trash pickup day and he rifles through what they've put at the curb. Now I have no idea what he does with the stuff, but I think he's looking for scrap metal and furniture that can be sold or repurposed. I told one of the women, "I'd rather see someone do that then have the trash haulers throw it in a landfill somewhere." They look at me like I'm crazy.