I’ve been living in Kyoto for a year. I separate my plastic waste in 2 different ways. one is for pet bottles, and another is for other plastics. such as bags with “プラ” signs.
It’s easy for food packages, but some other trash is difficult to separate correctly.
Such as broken cups, plastic forks and spoons, foamy trays, plastic toys, and household plastic goods like cups and hangers. Also, cutting boards and knives, and batteries.
Those trashes come out rarely so I forgot about it a lot. I put most of them in burnables, feeling guilty…
I have a pamphlet I received when I moved in. it has so many pictures, still when I decided to put my trash
I can’t find it from the pictures in the guide.
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Ward i live in (Shibuya) has some half-assed rule since last summer and I’m still figuring out… or is it only my bldg…
Ex:
Any plastic with food:
– if you rinse it with no trace of food -> plastic
– if you don’t rinse it out -> 燃えるゴミ
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 HOW?
“Oh no all my plastic waste is dirty, looks like I have to throw it in the burnables”, is usually my approach when I have something I’m not quite sure where it should go. Which is actually a waste of money because the burnable bags cost a fair amount of money and plastics are free to put out.
The proper way would be to pull out the town trash encyclopedia (if your area has one) and look up everything you want to throw away just to be sure.
Don’t sweat it. It all gets incinerated in the end.
Feel guilty about the batteries. They should not go into combustible trash and there is no excuse for that. Collect them in an old cup, when cup is full take them to a supermarket or electronics store for disposal (not all have it but the big ones do). It’s often a trash can in the shape of a battery. If not, they’re probably on the non-combustible non-plastic roster as well.
Styrofoam trays are plastic in any area I’ve lived in. Plastic cutlery when clean also goes into the plastic. Broken cups and cutting boards are non-combustible and non-plastic. The toys probably also.
Knives go into non-combustibles as well and should be wrapped and duct taped if you have some and then labeled ナイフ naifu. That’s a courtesy to avoid injuries. You probably have a phone. Figure out when they come around for that and have your phone remind you the day before.
Many city halls and ward offices also have English language versions of their guidelines on their websites. They differ from one place to the next. Those guidelines overrule any advice in this thread including mine.