But not so in Japan. Here we have a 16 page booklet which we affectionately
refer to as our “garbage Bible.” We have many categories and many subcategories.And it’s not just getting things in the right bags (blue, peach, and gray), we also need to know what day they will be picked up. The schedule is as follows:
Burnable Tues. & Fri. (blue bag)
Plastic bags/Wraps Thur. (gray bag)
Non-burnable 1st Wed. (peach bag)
Bottles/Cans/Hazardous materials 1st Mon. (bins at a different location)
Newspapers/Magazines/Cardboard/Clothing 1st & 3rd Mon. (bundled)
Pet Bottles 2nd & 4th Wed. (semi-transparent bag)
Yard garbage, leaves, twigs etc. are set out with the burnable as long as they’re placed in the transparent or semi-transparent bags; or the twigs can be bundled if the bundle is less than 60cm long and 30cm wide.
Sometimes it’s hard for us “gaijins” (foreigners) to know for sure whether something is plastic or paper (burnable) so the Japanese have symbols on almost everything. However, here’s where it
gets REALLY complicated, some items 
require more than one symbol! For instance, PET bottles (bottles which usually contain water or some carbonated drink), may require three symbols: the PET symbol, for the bottles themselves which must be put in a transparent or semi-transparent bag to be picked up the 
2nd and 4th Wednesday, the plastic symbol (on the right) for the lid which must be placed in a gray bag to be picked up on Thursday, and the paper symbol (on the left) for the label which must be placed in a blue bag and picked up on Tuesday or Friday...so if you think you got it all figured out, please come and help clue us in.Some older things don’t have the symbols mark, and its not always easy to know for sure into which category it falls. When that happens I usually make an executive decision and put it in the burnable bag. After all, anything will burn if you get it hot enough!
Donn
