Drying the Garbage

We wash pet bottles to put them out twice a month for garbage collection in our area of Tokyo. Drying them was a little difficult. I found this at the 100 yen shop. Five bottles can be drip-dried at one time. There's even a place for the caps.

PET Bottle Machine

At first glance, this looks like a drink machine.

It's actually a place to put PET (plastic drink) bottles. You have to take off the plastic cap and plastic from around the bottle. You put the bottle in the round hole. The other plastic goes in the horseshoe shaped hole. There are step stools in front of the machine so kids can climb up to put their bottlesin. Click on the picture to enlarge.

The drink machines were on the other side of this small sidewalk.

Saving Paper and Plastic

The game was wrapped in a plastic shrink package. The salesclerk saw that I was carrying my own shopping bag and asked if she could just put a seal over the price tag. I said "yes".

When I first came to Japan, salesclerks wrapped each purchase in paper with the store's design. They put the parcels in a paper shopping bag for you. It was a formal presentation and you felt like you had presents to open even though you had bought them yourself. Recycling was done back then, too, but over the years some stores have been cutting down on paper and plastic waste.

Garbage Bin

This is an old garbage bin. I have seen only three in our neighborhood. The top lifts up to throw something away. The wooden side slides up for the garbage to be taken out. The bins are on private property so they weren't for public use. In fact, there aren't any garbage bins on the street here. You can find public garbage bins near stores, public rest rooms, and in parks and rest areas.

Nowadays in our area, garbage has to be put in color coded bags (for recycling). They must be left in front of the house or gate. Click on the labels below for more information about recycling and garbage.

Tanabata Decorations

Today was the Earth Live concerts. There were concerts all over the world to call attention to taking care of the earth. Concerts were held on every continent. A concert was held in Japan, too.

Today was also tanabata in Japan. It is a day when wishes are hung on branches of bamboo. Eyes turn to the skies at night to see two bright stars. Click on the link below for the story at Kids Web Japan. To see last year's tanabata decorations, click on the label below.

Usually, the decorations are made of paper. Aunt chose shiny paper this year. Fortunately, we recycle almost everything.


Kids Web Japan--info. about tanabata

Kids Web Japan--story of tanabata

Clean Campaign

This poster was near the entrance of a small train station. It encourages people to remember their manners and not leave their bicycles near the station.

This is a close-up of the poster. (I brightened it a little.) A sakura blossom is being crushed by a bicycle tire. Sakura is a symbol of spring, of new beginnings. Papa says sakura is the heart of Japan. Maybe other Japanese people feel the same way.

Check the labels below or do a blog search for other clean campaigns and recycling. If this is your visit to this blog, check March and April posts for more pictures of sakura trees and sakura products.

Recycled Toilet Paper

Or, rather, toilet paper made out of recycled milk cartons (30%). The red lettering is written in katakana, the script used for foreign words. It literally sounds out the words "Recycle Eco Roll". The word below it in blue says "single" in katakana.

Toilet paper is sold in packages of 12 rolls like this. It has a plastic handle at the top to make it easy to carry home.

Kids Web Japan-- katakana

Recycling Bicycles

The blue bike is Little Brother's new bike. His old bike needs to be given away.

This is the old bike on our front porch. (Note we have two entrances. One for Baba's section of the house and the other for ours.)

When you want to get rid of a bike, you can give it away, sell it to a recycle shop or call the city to come get it. They recycle them, too.

We called the city and made a reservation for them to come get it. To pay for it, we bought a special sticker at a convenience store. It cost 600 yen. We will have to put the bicycle outside our gate for them to get it.

Sponge Made from Recycled PET Bottles

This sponge was made out of plastic PET bottles. I found it at the 100 yen shop. It was cheap AND good for the environment! It's a good strong sponge. I think it will last a long time. Maybe forever! Click on the picture to see the English written on the package.

Recycling Man

This truck goes around our neighborhood every now and then. On a loud speaker, the driver asks for old electronic, mechanical, or motorized items. Today he had an old computer, a television and two motorcycles on his truck.

The parts are salvaged or the items are repaired and redistributed. This is another way to recycle here. This truck comes by very rarely, but there is another way to get rid of these kinds of items. By calling the city, you can arrange for them to come to get them for a small fee.

By the way, there is also a truck that goes around asking for old laundry poles. He actually sells new ones, too.

The Salvation Army

Even though we avoided traffic and got there before closing time, there still wasn't the opportunity to take pictures inside. Can you see the cross on top of the building? Look above the wires. Note, too, the street lights. They have orange and green plastic shades!

Recycle This Bottle!

I thought you might be interested in this hand soap bottle because it gives instructions on how to squash it in order to recycle it. The company actually made the bottle with dimples in it so that it is easier to squash!
See them on the back and on the bottom? We have to squash all PET bottles and plastic bottles before putting them in a basket for the garbage workers to get. Every little bit helps.

To make sure you don't overlook the dimples (they use the word "rib"), the company printed pictures and instructions on the back of the bottle.

Recycled Bench

These benches are on the platform of a station on the Keio Line. It is the train line that runs west from Shinjuku Station. The benches are made from used pass-net cards. Pass-net cards are sold in increments of 1000 yen. You can use them to go through the station's turnstile without stopping at the ticket machine each time you ride the train. You can use them for 1000 yen worth of rides.



Above is the label that explains that the benches were made out of the cards.



I went on to another station on the Keio line. I was surprised to find this bench in the shopping area. Can you see that it is chained down? I wonder, is someone afraid it will be taken?

P.S. Notice the bench in the shopping area has an arm rest. Nowadays benches on streets and in parks are built that way. People can't lie down to sleep on them.

Garbage As Homework

"My homework's garbage," Little Brother announced a couple of weeks ago. Taking out the garbage was part of his homework for two weeks. Each day he had to put a circle on a calendar chart. I had to sign it after it was filled in. Taking out the garbage is not such an easy job here. It requires more than just putting a bag outside. There is a schedule for each area in the city. In our neighborhood in Tokyo, all garbage is separated into burnable (kitchen scraps and garden debris), non-burnable (recyclable plastic), recyclable paper (junk mail, school papers, cereal boxes), newspaper, cloth, cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles, and junk that doesn't fit any of the categories (which includes messy stuff that cannot be cleaned up, broken dishes wrapped in newspaper, broken umbrellas, etc.) All cans, plastic and glass bottles, yogurt cups, etc., need to be washed and dried. Each type of garbage has its own color of bag. Milk cartons are washed and dried and taken to a bin outside a nearby grocery store. Batteries and light bulbs are thrown away separately. It can all pile up through the week. It is a big job.