I bet you thought the recycle and no-recycle bins were hard to figure out! Trash in Tokyo is a complex thing, not only do you have to cover the trash up so the monster crows don’t strew it all over the place (see my photo above), but you must sort it according to a complex scheme of colored bags. When I was there I remember seeing notices about putting your PET bottles in clear bags and when to put them out for pick up but nothing about the colored bags. It’s also worth noting that the Japanese people are insane about over packaging things. If you were to buy a package a taro chips (very yummy by the way) you can expect an outer bag with the name of the item on it and an inner ‘tray’ to keep the bags shape and protect the chips from damage. Or if you buy a box of candy its not uncommon for the box to have smaller boxes in them each with a celo wraped candy on it’s own little plastic sled. It’s as if there is some law that states that ‘like food shall not touch like food’. It’s crazy. No wonder they have such a huge trash problem.
Most of cities in Tokyo have strict rules for disposal. It often drives me crazy so, those rules must drive most of non-Japanese freak out.
In my district Fussa, I have to buy certain garbage bags. Blue bags for burnable waste, yellow ones for unburnable waste. If I use other bag, they don’t take my bag. I usually buy M-size bags. 10bags for 300yen.
Metroblogging Tokyo: Disposal Rules