In Japan, there is a unique way of recycling and garbage disposal. The Japanese take great care in dealing with their garbage, which I believe Canada and North America could benefit greatly from. Even McDonald's have to conform to this unique style, which I have to say was very interesting when I first got here.

The garbage here is divided into combustibles and recyclables. Okay nothing different. So let's take a look at the McDonald's example. Say you buy a Big Mac combo that comes with a Big Mac sandwich box, fries box, drink container, drink lid, drink straw, and all the food of course ;). In Canada, after you are finished eating, usually you would just throw everything into the garbage bin. However, in Japan, you would first take the lid off of the drink, pour whatever is left of the drink into a special funnel at the top of the garbage box, put the straw and the drink lid into the recyclables bin and the sandwich box and the drink into the garbage box. A little extra work than Canada eh? Well everyone does it here, so I guess we should too. Oh yeah, other fast food restaurants take your garbage from you and do it for you! That's really nice I think.

As for the garbage every week, the garbage collectors come twice a week and the recycling collectors (cans and plastic only) come once a week. I think because Japanese homes are smaller, the garbage collectors have to come more often since we don't have a backyard or a safe place to store the garbage. Keeping it in the kitchen can really stink up the place >.<

Finally, the most unique thing about Japanese garbage collection is the truck they use to collect it. In Sanda City where my girlfriend's family lives, when the garbage people come to pick up the garbage, they play some sort of MIDI track that has a very addicting tune to it. Just to note, a MIDI track is like an MP3 but it came before the MP3. Arguably, if we had not gotten rid of the MIDI track, computers would not be as popular today. A pretty loaded statement, but I think that can be supported pretty well. Anyway, I have a video of that funny music the garbage people play when they come to collect your trash. I will definitely put it sooner or later.