Talking Trash...in Japan

One of the hardest things to get used to in Japan is dealing well with the trash.  I used to have to take my trash down the street on a certain morning...burnable, plastic, cans, glass, pet bottles, milk cartons, etc.  It was embarrassing enough to have to walk down the street right after getting out of bed, but what was worse was when the self-appointed neighborhood-trash-patrol woman would inspect my trash, find something wrong with it, and make me carry it back home.  Everyone looking at you knows you were literally too stupid to take out your own trash.  


When we want to throw something out, like a folding chair for example, here is the process.  One of my friends has to call the trash hotline for me since I feel helpless to give the detailed information required.  She receives a special number and makes a reservation usually about a month out.  I then go to the convenience store and buy a trash seal for about $2.50 and write my special number on it.  I write the date I have to put the item out on my calendar in red.  I constantly check it because I can't imagine going through this process again.  On that day, I put the seal on the chair and put it out.  I wait for a neighbor to tell me I have done something wrong and finally get up the courage to peek outside and see if it is gone later in the day.  When it is, I feel that I am really living in Japan!  


For bigger items, like a TV or refrigerator, the cost is more like $50 to throw them away.  In America, we have another way of dealing with trash.  It's called a yard sale, and we are used to getting money for these items.  So, this really hurts.  Once a woman gave me her refrigerator...lucky!  Imagine how surprised I was when it didn't work, and I had to pay $50 to throw it away.  Are you getting a feeling for my feelings about trash about now?  You may say, "Well, it's a good thing to be so concerned about recycling, etc.," and I would agree with you except that last year, Nagoya City admitted that a lot of the trash rules were really meaningless (like washing all your plastic trash before throwing it away).  


What is the marketing point to all this?  Well, speaking of dealing well with trash, there are no kitchen sink garbage disposals in this country, and I won't even go into what we do instead.  Are you a garbage-disposal marketing company?  Be a trash innovator in Japan!  Contact us at www.noah-digital.co.jp/english/.