The picture shows the Shinagawa District Government in Tokyo reminding citizens that the resource recycling day is Tuesday. Photo by Zhang Guannan/Guangming Photo

Anyone who has been to Japan will find that on the busy streets of Japan, except for temporary trash cans set up around convenience stores, vending machines or during large-scale events, there are few other places to find trash cans. More importantly, even so, there is almost no garbage thrown away on the streets of Japan.

"Clean" may be the biggest impression for a person who travels to Japan for the first time. Who would have thought that more than 40 years ago, Japan suffered from severe air pollution and garbage surrounding the city. After that, through the joint efforts of the Japanese government and the people, Japan's environment has been greatly improved. The clean environment has also become a business card of Japan, attracting a large number of foreign tourists to travel to Japan.

Detailed garbage classification

There are two reasons why trash cans are almost invisible in Japan, especially in big cities like Tokyo. One is that in the Tokyo subway sarin gas case in 1995, terrorists used trash cans to hide their tools. According to the reporter, after the incident, in order to prevent similar situations from happening again, cities such as Tokyo removed all trash cans. Second, it is difficult for ordinary simple and rough street trash cans to meet Japan's strict garbage classification system, which is also the most important reason why trash cans are rarely seen.

Since the 1960s and 1970s, Japan has begun to implement garbage classification, initially only dividing it into combustible and non-combustible garbage. With the development of resource waste classification and recycling, garbage classification has become more and more detailed and complex. Today, Japan's garbage can be divided into seven categories: the first is combustible garbage, such as kitchen waste, clothes, rubber products, leather products, weeds, etc.; the second category is non-combustible garbage, such as tableware, kitchen utensils, glass products, light bulbs, small household appliances, etc.; the third category is called "bulky garbage" by the Japanese, as the name suggests, it is relatively large garbage such as bicycles, tables and chairs, sofas, microwave ovens, ovens, golf clubs, etc.; the fourth category is non-recyclable garbage, such as cement, bricks and tiles, farm tools, fire extinguishers, waste tires, etc.; the fifth category is plastic bottles, such as plastic bottles of beverages, alcohol, soy sauce, etc. The sixth category is recyclable plastics, such as plastic packaging bags, toothpaste tubes, shampoo bottles, etc. The seventh category is hazardous waste, such as dry batteries, mercury thermometers, etc. The eighth category is resource waste, such as newspapers, magazines, cardboard boxes, etc.

When the reporter first arrived in Japan, he was also troubled by Japan's strict garbage classification. On the one hand, you need to refer to the garbage classification icon to distinguish which category the household garbage in your hand belongs to. After getting familiar with this situation, use the most practical "subtraction" method to find out which are non-combustible garbage, resources and large garbage, and the rest can almost be classified as combustible garbage.

On the other hand, it is not enough to distinguish the garbage classification, you also need to be able to decompose the garbage in your hand. For example, after drinking a bottle of plastic bottled beverage, people in other countries just throw it away. However, it is not that simple in Japan. First, you need to unscrew the bottle cap; then wash the inside of the beverage bottle; finally, peel off the plastic packaging on the outside. Bottle caps are non-combustible garbage, while the bottles themselves should be placed in special plastic bottle recycling bins, and the peeled plastic packaging should be thrown into recyclable plastic garbage bags. For another example, more and more people in China are ordering takeout now, and many people put all the garbage directly in plastic bags and throw it away after eating. In Japan, it is not that simple. If you buy a bento at a convenience store and take it home to eat, the used plastic packaging must be washed and sorted before throwing it away.

What's more interesting is that there is a type of garbage in Japan called "bulky garbage", mainly furniture with a side length of more than 30 cm. In China, we can sell such garbage to garbage recycling stations, not only without spending money, but also may make a little money. However, in Japan, throwing large garbage requires applying to the local large garbage disposal center in advance and paying a fee. For example, it costs 800 yen to dispose of a single sofa, while it costs 2,000 yen to dispose of a double sofa.

Strict control of "illegal dumping"

Japan has such a garbage classification system, and recycling is not easy. Each administrative district in Japan has its own recycling schedule. If you miss the designated time on a specified date, you can only store the garbage until the next collection day. Therefore, many Japanese families prepare a corresponding number of small trash cans at home according to the types of garbage, put designated garbage bags in them, and complete the garbage classification when throwing garbage in daily life, so that you can easily throw away the garbage on the specific collection day.

Generally, each administrative district in Japan will send each household a "calendar" for garbage disposal in the second year at the end of the year, with pictures of various types of garbage on it to help citizens classify garbage. Not only that, the dates of each month on the "calendar" will also use different colors to indicate the information of garbage collection days. Even without a "calendar", residents can also learn about the specific information of garbage collection days through city newspapers, official government websites, etc. Take the Kami-Meguro 1-chome area in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, as an example. From April 2019 to March 2020, combustible garbage is collected every Tuesday and Friday, resource garbage is collected every Thursday, non-combustible garbage is collected every Saturday, and mercury-containing products, such as fluorescent lamps and mercury thermometers, are collected on the third Saturday of each month. And this is just the garbage collection calendar for residents of Kami-Meguro 1-chome. Other areas in Meguro-ku, such as Naka-Meguro and Hibun-dani, have different collection dates.

It is difficult to restrain citizens by morality alone due to the cumbersome garbage sorting and disposal procedures. Therefore, the Japanese government and citizens attach great importance to it on the one hand, and the sound and complete laws and regulations restrain the citizens more effectively. Japan's legal provisions on garbage sorting and the heavy penalties are among the best in the world. In Japan, littering is called "illegal dumping" and will be sentenced to a sentence of not more than 5 years or a fine of not more than 10 million yen. If a corporate entity illegally dumps industrial waste, a fine of up to 100 million yen may be imposed. However, it has not been long since the establishment of relevant garbage disposal laws in Japan. For example, Japan enacted the Waste Disposal Law in 1970, and then enacted the Container Packaging Recycling Law in 1995, the Household Appliance Recycling Law in 1998, and the Food Recycling Resource Recycling Promotion Law in 2000.

Garbage classification starts from the baby

The Japanese are familiar with such complicated garbage classification and disposal principles and practice them in person. In addition to the constraints of laws and fines, they are also due to environmental education that started in kindergarten. It is no exaggeration to say that Japanese people have learned how to sort garbage under the hand-in-hand teaching of their mothers since birth. Children in kindergarten have already understood some common environmental protection knowledge, and use it to urge their parents and elders to abide by it consciously. There is a kindergarten near the reporter's home, and I often see a very interesting scene at noon, where children line up to throw away garbage. When I walked in, I found that they were sorting and throwing away the garbage generated after lunch. After the interview, the reporter learned that the lunch provided by the school often contains bottled milk, and the paper bottle cap of the milk bottle has a layer of plastic paper. After the children finish drinking the milk, they should put the paper bottle cap and plastic paper into different trash baskets, wash the glass milk bottle in a bucket, and then put it upside down in the designated basket to dry. The meticulousness of Japanese education can be seen from this.

It is understood that from kindergarten to high school in Japan, schools will regularly organize students to visit local garbage disposal plants. Not only Japanese elementary school students, but also many foreign student groups will be organized to visit garbage disposal plants when they visit Japan. The Japanese government and schools let students understand how different types of garbage affect the conversion rate of garbage incineration and the reuse rate of resource recycling to enhance their environmental awareness. These accumulated concept educations have enabled the garbage classification system to be effectively implemented. The child of a friend of the reporter is in the third grade of elementary school in Japan. Once, the child told the reporter that their social studies class was talking about garbage classification, and she found it very interesting. In the future, she will strictly classify garbage according to the knowledge she has learned. Garbage classification is a system that requires long-term education to be promoted. If China wants to promote this system in the future, on the one hand, we need to rely on long-term legal and publicity education, citizen self-discipline and "public opinion supervision" to achieve it; on the other hand, and most importantly, we should cultivate social atmosphere step by step through Japan's education that starts from childhood.

(Reporter Zhang Guannan in Tokyo, Tokyo, July 28)

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