Trash day and I’m up early to walk it down the block to the pickup point. All the neighbors put their trash in the same place (a big pile near a stone wall by the grocery store) and the little garbage truck comes to collect it. The trucks are cute—they are bright blue with the boxy, curved shape of a garbage truck but the size of a large pickup. Tokyo streets are very narrow; an American garbage truck would rip the walls off houses here.

We separate our gomi (garbage) into categories which are picked up on different days. Here in Sendagi, burnable trash is Monday and Thursday mornings. Non-burnables are Wednesday. Saturday is recyclables—glass, cans & newspaper. PET bottles and plastic shopping bags have drop-offs at convenience stores. If you have daigomi (big garbage) you have to call to make special arrangements.

There’s not much of a resale economy here, though that is changing somewhat now that the economy has had a run of slow years. Back in the “Bubble Years” of the late 80’s and early 90s, people had tons of disposable income and their slightly used or out-of-date material goods became disposable, too. Non-burnable trash days sparked urban legends (some true, no doubt). Stereo equipment, furniture, small electronics, kitchen appliances all in good working order, but no longer the fasionable color or model, would end up on the trash pile—a garbage picker’s paradise. When we first arrived, I rescued some childrens books, but that’s the best coup I’ve made on trash day. Posted by kuri at July 24, 2000 06:56 AM