It's all RUBBISH!

Ok, haven't done this in a while - it's time to rant! So, life in Japan has many differences from life back in the UK. One of those differences is the precise and delicate way in which I have to throw out my rubbish. In Japan, it goes beyond the usual recycling good sense and most people have a standard 4 bins in their apartment, each with their own heading and sub-heading. "Burnable" rubbish has to be separated into food waste and regular burnable, "non-burnable" has to be separated into glass (which is then further separated into green, clear and brown) and tin cans (both washed with labels removed), "P.E.T bottles" have a bin of their own (washed with labels removed) and one final group "other plastics". I hear frequent complaints from my friends that the bin man or local neighbourhood watch has returned their rubbish due to the fact it has not been separated correctly, and more often than not, they are then forced to go through their rubbish and correct their mistakes. I was also quite smug at the fact I have never once had my rubbish returned, or been lectured in Japanese about the procedure.

Yesterday, this all changed. Not only have I apparently been putting my rubbish in the WRONG place on the WRONG day every week for the last 8 months, I have also failed to separate it into the correct categories. Apparently my local "bin men" (who, by the way, I have never seen... let alone heard!) have been sorting my rubbish for me. Oh the shame.

I won't bore you with the Japanese office politics I had to endure when I found all of this out, but let's just say it was a very frustrating afternoon!