Maybe stupid question, but I’ve been living in Japan (Tokyo) for less than 5 months and I still struggle understanding how garbage disposal works. Having everybody I ask for advice telling me “It depends on your city” also doesn’t help.
I have these ruined H&M shoes I have to throw away. Just your average shoes made of canvas, plastics and a bit of metal where the strings are. My city’s garbage guide mentions only leather shoes as burnable but there is no mention of canvas shoes. On unburnable there seems to be only dangerous materials, but no mention of clothing. I tried looking up on the internet, but all the results are “sell them to secondhand stores”, but they are too damaged to be sold.
So I will try to ask for help here, do you guys know where I can throw them away?
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The thing is it does depend on your city, or in central Tokyo, it depends on your ward.
But I sympathise because those garbage guides can be confusing. My guide was similar to yours and I threw out a lot of shoes earlier this year as burnable garbage. I’d try to throw them out as burnable garbage in their own bag first, and if they don’t accept them, throw them out as non-burnable garbage.
https://reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/xjkflo/biweekly_boss_premium_edition_questions_thread_21/
But it does depend on your city/ward. Which city are you in?
You gotta look at the garbage disposal rules online for your ward, or in the garbage disposal manual you received when you registered at the ward office.
For nishtokyo-shi, shoes can go in non-burnables. But it was different when I lived in suginami-ku, and different when I lived in shinjuku-ku.
You have to look it up.
Just throw them in with the ‘burnables.’ They probably count as clothes and your area may have containers for that at the ward office. But you’ve done your due diligence. They’ll burn, it’s fine. If you’re in an area where you need to write your name on the bag then put them separately from your other trash in its own bag. If the pickup crew doesn’t like it they’ll paste a note on it that tells you what to do.
Check your city website, usually it’s burnable for clothes though.
There might also be used clothing collection at some municipal facilities that will take them to recycle.
or Google : 靴捨て方[ward / city name] if you have trouble finding the infos. Sometimes the general trash disposal is not really precise and you have to search a lot to get the correct info.
Here is my cheat when throwing things that are probably burnable but I have no idea if it’s actually burnable. I put the item in a clear plastic bag and wait if they pick it up or not. If they don’t, then I put it as non-burnable.
Most shoes are burnable. So are metal teapots! I learned both recently
For whatever doesn’t look like food, put it in the center of your trash bag to avoid being given a lecture by someone who doesn’t have a job
Canvas shoes is consider burnable, just throw away like how you throw everything else. Old clothes can be recycled but shoes doesn’t.
If you’re not sure, it usually goes in burnables. If it burns, it burns.
Some shops—H&M may be one of them—will accept returns of their old goods. Some shoe shops—Shoe Plaza is one—will accept old shoes from any manufacturer.