ごみ (gomi) - Rubbish

One of the first things I always hear from people who come to visit Japan is "where are all the bins?". It's true enough - at home there's a bin on every corner, whereas you can walk for kilometres here without ever seeing one. The second thing I hear is "why isn't there rubbish everywhere?"; you would think that if there were no bins to be found, people would just give up and throw things on the ground. Not so - people diligently carry their bottles, wrappers and cartons around until they find a コンビニ (konbini - convenience store), which will usually have ごみ箱 (ごみばこ - gomibako - rubbish bins) out the front.

So why are there no bins and where is all the rubbish? The answers might be more interesting than you think.

In truth, Japan is obsessed with ごみ. It's a big issue - in a small country full of people, there's a lot of ごみ and not too many places to put it. Because of this, landfill is not as reliable an option; instead, ごみ is burned at huge incinerators in each town and city. Obviously not everything can be burned - at a minimum, ごみ has to be separated broadly into 燃えるごみ (もえるごみ - moeru gomi - burnable/combustible rubbish) and 燃えないごみ (もえないごみ - moenai gomi - unburnable/non-combustible rubbish). This goes for household ごみ as well as businesses - most レストラン (resutoran - restaurants) for example, including マクドナルド (McDonald's), have separate ごみ箱 for paper and plastic. That might be one of the reasons there aren't too many ごみ箱 sitting around holus bolus - managing categorised bins all over the place would be a logistical headache. As it stands, ごみ箱 tend to stand at the major centres where it's worth their while - レストラン, コンビニ and 電車駅 (でんしゃえき - densha eki - train stations). Don't hold back with 自動販売機 (じどうはんばいき - jidouhanbaiki - vending machines) either - they always seem to have the right ごみ箱 next door.

The definitions and policies of different kinds of ごみ differ from region to region, which can make things very confusing. When you move to a new house or apartment, one of the things you'll receive is a (usually very long) guide to ごみ - what goes in which bag, dates for collection and where to put it. With several exceptions, ごみ is broadly separated into 燃えるごみ, 燃えないごみ and リサイクル (risaikuru - recyclables), each with a distinct labelled bag that they need to be tied up in. Generally 燃えるごみ includes things like food wrappers, kitchen scraps, cloth, wood and some kinds of light plastics. リサイクル are what you'd expect - 空き缶 (あきかん - akikan - cans), ビン (bin - glass bottles) and ペットボトル (petto botoru -  PET bottles). 燃えないごみ is everything else - metals, heavy plastic, glass and aluminium foil, for example.

That's not all though - recyclable newspaper and cardboard is flat-packed and tied up with twine (unlike this naughty person who's put it in 燃えるごみ). Furniture and bulky ごみ needs to be booked for pickup - there isn't a regular "bring out your dead" here. Batteries and small electronics need to be taken back to the shop or to a designated pickup point. In some cases, it gets even more complicated from here; according to a New York Times article, one town in Shikoku decided it needed 44 categories of ごみ - from cloth to egg cartons to "small metal" items. This may be another thing to explain where the ごみ箱 went - that they were taken away to stop people cheating and throwing everything unsorted into public bins. I'm glad the 神戸 (こうべ - Kobe) ごみ policy doesn't go that far!

For how sophisticated the ごみ system is, I was surprised at how simply it's actually put out and collected. Presumably due to narrow streets and a lack of space, there are no bins out the front of homes either - simple 30L or 45L ごみ bags are placed out as-is at each apartment or block's designated area. The huge piles of bags sit at the roadside awaiting collection, sometimes for hours of a morning, which can cause havoc with the local wildlife. Crows, stray cats and wild boars can be a big problem, ripping open the bags and cascading the ごみ all over the pavement in their search for a free meal.

To deal with this and protect from hungry jaws, maws and claws, collection points are often covered with protective mesh netting. People who attempt to put their ごみ bags out early and expose them to the wildlife overnight will be roundly scolded; those who have self-styled "rubbish police" in their area need to be particularly careful - it's not unheard of for fussy neighbours to dump incorrectly sorted or placed bags right back at the offender's door!

Having avoided all the pitfalls and attacks from creatures of the night, the ごみ bags are eventually collected and thrown into the back of the truck by busy men with gardening gloves. Should any of the bags be ripped open, any spillage is cleaned up with a few efficient sweeps of a dustpan and broom. 燃えるごみ is trucked off to one of the city's incinerators where it's burnt at nearly 1000 degrees celsius to around 10% of its original size. The resulting ash is apparently buried along with the 燃えないごみ that can't be recycled. Even in waste disposal, it's all about saving space. So where is all the rubbish (if someone's not trying to find the right bin for it)? Up in smoke, underground or on its way back to the shops.