Trash Again

Let's touch on the topic of trash one more time. It's serious here. If you don't seperate your trash correctly, the trash collectors will return your bag to your doorstep. You don't get the luxury of knowing what was wrong with the trash, you have to figure it out on your own.

How do they know it's your trash? All trash for the community is placed in a central location for collection. Unfortunately, there's very little hiding who the American is in the neighboorhood. Your trash will likely be full of American products and English language items.They know where the American lives and will return the trash to you. Too many trash violations (repeated failure to properly sort your trash) will be reported to the Navy. The Navy will then report it to your command, your command will evict you from your house and you will be placed in Navy housing (the Negishi annex, which is an hour and a half from the main base) for the duration of your stay in Japan.

The trash sorting is the reason a lot of people chose to live on base where you don't have to sort your trash. I kind of like the trash sorting for two reasons: 1) It's a challenge...I wanted to live Japanese, well, here it is...and 2) It makes me think about the things I consume and throw away. As of right now I never give a second thought to the things I put in the trash, but being forced to think about it will probably make me realize how wasteful I can be.

Here's a sampling of our trash booklet: