QBS life : Reduce Reuse Recycle

Japan is a country that has little resources compared to its domestic needs. The country is rich with mountains, volcanoes, had not much of land to use and also does not have much/at all natural resources like petroleum, gas or minerals.

So, unlike us in Malaysia, people in Japan are very concern about what they throw, because they have little space to dump all the garbages. And one good thing is that the Japanese act in groups and this behaviour is one little secret of their success as a civilised society. So when the government outlined that everybody must separate the garbage before throwing it away, everyone does it without much complain (I mean not as much as us in Malaysia).

Some criteria that must be fulfilled when you want to throw garbage in Japan is

1) Identify what type it is (burnable, unburnable, pet bottle, glass bin, large size (like furniture, electrical appliances etc)

2) Put the thrash in the designated garbage bag (you have to purchase a standard garbage bag) and throw it at the designated place on the designated day. (ie, in front of your apartment, every Tuesday and Friday for burnable garbage, once a week for plastic)

-> so you will have to stand a pungy smell in the house until the specified day if you produce mountains of kitchen garbage

3) If you mix up the garbage, chances are you'll get it returned in front of your door with a notice.

If you are coming to stay in Japan, don't worry you will be provided with pamphlets on how to throw away rubbish correctly the day you register with the municipal.

If you are outside, just find the correct bin to throw away the garbage.. But it is not that easy to find one. Everyone here bring his/her own plastic bag to picnics and barbeque to bring the garbage home. We also did that on every similar events we do. This is because no garbage bins are provided..and still people don't leave the trash for the sake of the environment.

Another good thing from this is that, people recycle a lot here. To throw away an electrical would cause you about 3000yen (that is about RM100). So what they do is they sell it at very cheap price or just give it away for free. And there is when I come in...getting every thing for nearly free. My TV with TV rack, large refrigerator, table, cabinet, bicycle, dresser etc..were all used item but at very good conditions. I got all the information from message board in Fukuoka Now, a website for dedicated for foreigners living in Fukuoka. Nani's clothes and toys were also from the recycle center or flea market. And the tradition is that, when the person is leaving, the things will be given away to other Malaysians for free.

To my surprise when I first arrived here, Japanese recycle the milk container, not by merely putting it into a specified garbage bin, but before that they will cut open, wash and dry the containers before throwing it into specified garbage bins usually provided in supermarkets. Man.. thats a lot of hassle but generally people follow it. The box will be recycled to make tissue papers.

The picture below is about Aeon (Jusco) activity of recycling biomass plastic (plastic made of plants) from plastic to wrap vegetables -> egg container. And if you tell that you don't need a plastic bag (because you bring shopping bag etc), you'll get a stamp which you can exchange with a discount coupon when the qty is enough.

Their effort is endless to tell, but the result is there. Longkang belakang rumah ni macam anak sungai yang bersih betul airnya. I was told by a Japanese friend that long time ago, when Japan was a developing country, water pollution was bad, worse than Sg Klang, but with their hard work (not by cleaning the water macam govt buat kat Msia, but the effort of the society), the rivers now are crystal clear.

I really hope the day Malaysians be as environmentally concious as the Japanese will come. And I would like to help my brothers and sisters of my alma mater with that...Tgklah macam mana..