Fungus Mungus' Weird Stuff in Japan

A chronicle of general weirdness I've encountered during my stay in Japan.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Comburnable?

With a population of half of the U.S. crammed into an area approximately the size of California, landfill space in Japan is at a premium. As a result, Japan is obsessed with the separation of "burnable garbage" (moeru gomi) from "non-burnable garbage" (moenai gomi). Most communities have very strict laws regarding the separation of your garbage. You must put your waste in clear bags, often marking them with your name. If you mix a "non-burnable" item with "burnable garbage", a nasty little note gets stuck on it and it's left for you to deal with.

This obsession extends into restaurants as well. This photo was taken at a Starbucks in Akita City in Northern Japan. This is where you separate your burnable and non-burnable waste. You can see that they mixed the words "combustable" and "burnable" up to make an amusing bit of Engrish that would make G.W. Bush proud.


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