Garbage Police

If you have been reading this blog from the beginning, you know something about the garbage system in Japan. At least, you know about Kobe (which is way tamer than some parts of Japan).

As a refresher, we take "burnable" garbage (eg anything food based, paper based, or plastic that has been in contact with food) out on Monday and Thursday. We take non-burnable (clothing, broken household items and non-food related plastic) out on every other Tuesday, and we take bottles and cans out on every other Wednesday. It took some getting used to.

We did, however, make a concerted effort to get used to the garbage sorting routine. We also have tried to be perfect neighbors by never putting garbage out the night before. (Even though it has to be out by 8am on the designated morning). If you put your garbage out the night before it is unsightly and may get scavenged by passing crows, cats, etc.

We had heard rumor that there are police who's job it is to enforce the garbage rules, but we have never seen any.

On the other side of town, my co-worker has been trying to be good, but occasionally breaking the rules. She occasionally puts her garbage out the night before (hopefully when no one is looking) and was pretty much going by the rule of thumb that everything is burnable if you get it hot enough. She was worried that she might get caught, and I don't think she broke the rules TOO often, but I was a little worried that she might piss off her neighbors.

Then it happened.

Last week, she was visited by the garbage police. She got a knock on her door and found an officer on the other side. He told her that she had put her garbage in the wrong pile (each residence has a designated area to take their trash. These areas are spaced about a block away from each other, but even if it is more convenient to use a different pile, you have to use your designated pile.

My co-worker's father had just been visiting, so she explained that he had probably been the one to mistake the piles. Her Japanese is not exactly fluent, so she also explained that she was a foreigner and didn't know any better.

This is the best part.

The office informed her that he knew she was a foreigner because he had seen a post-card from her home country in the garbage she had thrown out. My co-worker was horrified. Not only had the police tracked her down, he had gone through her garbage. Of course, that is how he had tracked down the culprit, but the thought of having her trash rifled has set her on the straight and narrow. No more bending the rules for her... even if technically, this one wasn't her fault.

Russell and I are also being extra careful.

I wish they would introduce plastic recycling to this part of Kobe. I never know for sure whether to put it in burnables or not... I hate to think of inhaling the results of a big plastic bonfire... I hope its okay to wash it and put it in non-burnables...

I guess the trash police will let us know if it isn't.