Scraponomics Episode 87: Japanese Curbside Recycling

Jul 02, 2015, 04:54 PM

“Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.” — Arnold H. Glasow, American businessman, author and humorist

Let’s be clear. I’m not one of those self-loathing Americans who constantly complain about how other countries are better than us. I’ve been to enough places to know that we all have positive and negative aspects about our respective countries. The US has a lot of positives. Nevertheless, I used to live in Japan, and when it came to curbside recycling, while not perfect, I always felt they had a great system in place.

One key difference is the frequency in which material is picked up. Where I lived, trash pick-ups marked for incineration were on Mondays and Thursdays, but the recycling pick-ups were scheduled on different days throughout the month. For example, every second Wednesday would be plastics, everything third Wednesday would be paper, metals every fourth Wednesday, and so on.

On the surface, this may look like the City would spend more in freight costs. However, the money they spend on freight is most-likely made up for (and then some) by picking up clean, separated materials, and by picking up more volume, since the pick-ups are batched monthly for each material.

There are specific bags that are transparent for both recyclables and trash. That way, the people who pick up the material can see if it’s clean or if it’s been commingled. If they find it doesn’t meet the right standards, they place a red tag on the bag and don’t pick it up. This helps educate people on how to separate material the right way.

I think the public here in Lansing is smart — and cares enough — to develop a curbside pick-up system that earns the City revenue. The Japanese model isn’t perfect, but we can learn from it, and perhaps create something even better.

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