Garbage in Japan ('', gomi) is generally separated into burnable, non-burnable and recyclable items. At least two kinds of litter boxes can, therefore, be found in most households and public places. The exact definition of what is burnable, non-burnable and recyclable depends on the municipality and the waste treatment plant that is available locally.
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The number of public garbage cans in Japan is very small, and people are often asked to bring their trash home for disposal. Places where public garbage cans can be found include some train stations and a shrinking number of convenience stores, while many vending machines have an attached container for PET bottles, bins and cans. Expect to carry your trash with you until you return to your hotel room or home.
Improper garbage disposal ranks among the top reasons for frictions between neighbors. This is because local neighborhoods typically bear a responsibility for the proper separation and collection of waste, and because rules about separating trash differ from municipality to municipality and can be quite intricate. Besides improper separation of garbage, common causes for complaints include people using improper garbage bags or putting their garbage out outside the designated hours or at a collection point outside their own neighborhood.
Garbage collection days and hours depend on the area you live in. City websites and signs in the neighborhood inform residents about the weekdays on which what type of garbage is collected. Burnable garbage is usually collected on two or three days during the week, while non-burnable garbage is usually collected once a week.
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Having been in Japan for over six years now, the garbage disposal is now part and parcel of my daily life. However, I would encounter certain types of garbage that I didn't know how to sort and dispose of even now. There are so many rules about garbage disposal that nobody tells you about before you move to Japan that I sometimes think there should be a gaijin school teaching you all these facets of Japanese life.
Lucky for you, I decided to write this guide that should tell you almost everything you need to know about garbage disposal in Japan, consisting of the following topics:
In Singapore, where I grew up, each apartment floor would have one shared chute that you could dump all of your garbage into, regardless of type. If it fits, it goes down.
While they have recycling bins for glass, plastic, and cans in Singapore, it's said that they would mix the different types of recyclables upon collection since they will be sorted during the recycling process anyway. Some of these bins don't even have sections for you to sort them. The way it was handled certainly gave me one less thing to think about.
In Japan, it's a whole different story. You have garbage collection days and different ways of disposal for different types of garbage. It can get pretty confusing, gaijin or not.
This guide aims to be as comprehensive as possible. If you have a question that didn't get answered in the guide, please leave a comment, and I will add the answer for the benefit of all.
IMPORTANT I will repeat this throughout the guide, but it is essential to know that the sorting and disposing rules and costs differ from municipality to municipality. There are countless variations, so there is no way I can include all of them in this guide. However, I will be sharing how to find the right manual from your municipality through this guide.
Also, remember, I could not possibly experience every situation to give first-hand advice. This is another way of me saying what you do is your own responsibility and not mine when something goes wrong following this guide.
With that aside, let's start with some topics for basic understanding.
First, you must understand that each city has its own unique garbage collection rules and schedule. Even within the city, different districts can have different garbage collection days.
If you take a look at the example of the Ebisu district of Shibuya-ku, the collection day for combustibles is Monday and Thursday. In contrast, it's Tuesday and Friday for the Shibuya district of the same Shibuya-ku district.
Let's take another example from far away Asahikawa-shi, Hokkaido. Each day, they collect different type of garbage. From the 5th of April to the 9th of April , the schedule is as follows:
There are, however, some common points that are shared across most of Japan:
Usually, a sign by the garbage collection area will usually tell you of the schedule. In some cities where the collection schedule can be more complicated, you'll receive a calendar by post. This booklet will probably become the first thing you look at each morning.
Either way, when you move into the new city, the first thing you should do is to search for the garbage collection calendar with the following keyword: [your city name], followed by ''' '''''' (garbage calendar). For example, if you are living in Shinjuku-ku ('''), you would search for '''' '' '''''' without the quotes.
Unfortunately, cities that provide an English version of the calendar are far and few. You could try your luck by adding the keyword ''''' (English version) into your search term.
In some smaller apartment buildings or 'mansions' as the Japanese refer to them, there will be a garbage station that allows you to throw your garbage regardless of the day of the week. The garbage collectors will collect the appropriate garbage following the calendar. See here on how to find an apartment that lets you do so.
As mentioned, the differing rules of each municipality are a pain for foreigners and Japanese alike. In general, garbage is usually collected between 6 am to 8 am in the morning.
You can find the exact time by finding the sign by the garbage station or referring to the information from your city ward. Here are a few examples:
Some municipalities will specify the time in which you can start putting out your garbage, while others state the cutoff time. For example, Yamagata-shi stipulated between 6 am to 8 am as the time to take out your garbage, while Adashi-ku in Tokyo states 'by 8am' without indication 8 am start time.
They have a stipulated time period because if you leave garbage out for too long, crows will tear open the garbage bags to scavenge for food, scattering the garbage all over the street. So, be sure the follow the timing.
Many professionals work late nights or the night shift so waking up in the morning to take out the garbage can be disruptive to their lives. Consideration has been given to such people where outside covered garbage stations would be set up in those areas to prevent interferences from wildlife, allowing a more generous collection time period.
As mentioned, there are mansions with garbage station lets you take out garbage any time of the day. The keyword you want to look for when finding such apartments is '24''''''''''' which means 24 hours garbage station. This will often be a room in the basement of the building that you can access anytime of the day. Since more garbage will be accumulated on any given day, large complexes with more residents tend not to have this feature.
Some of these residences even have a feature called a garbage drum ('''''), which is a special device installed in the common space that will compress garbage to allow space savings, reduction of foul odors and easy collection.
As the cutoff timing is when the garbage truck will start their rounds, you will probably be okay if you miss the timing by a little. If you miss the timing by a lot, the best thing you can do is bring down your garbage and see if the garbage has already been collected or not. If it has, take it back and wait for the next collection day.
As you can see in the previous section, it's not just the collection days are different, but the way you are expected to sort your garbage is different based on where you live.
For example, Shibuya-ku will collect paper and cloth goods, together with other types of combustibles, on the combustible collection day. At the same time, Tachikawa-shi requires you to throw out your paper recyclables on Wednesdays and combustibles separately on Thursday.
Here is another example from Tachikawa-shi:
As you can see, the garbage disposal calendar is key for you not to make your landlord regret accepting a gaijin as a resident. Apart from the schedule, it tells you how you should sort your garbage.
Even with the calendar, there can be special exceptions, like in some municipalities, clothing will not be collected on rainy days.
Knowing when to bring out your garbage is one thing, but how do you actually sort it?
Once again, each city has different sorting rules, down to individual items. I cannot emphasize this enough.
For example, Machida-shi has a glossary guide that tells you how to sort every single type of item. Even in the same city, sorting might be different for different districts. For example, the guide states that you should sort plastic cards as combustible in districts 1-12, but as incombustibles in district 13.
Unfortunately, if you want 100% accuracy, there isn't a way to avoid referring to the detailed, municipality-specific guide, usually available only in Japanese.
The following is a general guide that would be more or less accepted wherever you are. It won't be perfect, but chances are that your landlord or city wouldn't get too mad.
For recyclables, a recycling mark will be displayed on the packaging of a product that tells you how to sort them. This mark is the best reference as to how to sort something. The five marks you will come across are as follows
From left to right
At times, you will not find the mark readily. For example, on some disposable contact lens, you won't find the plastic mark on the lens packaging itself, but instead, will find it on the box containing all the lens. So, be sure to look carefully before sorting.
As the name suggests, this refers to everything that can be burned.
Combustible garbage consists of :
Depending on your city, you might be required to sort the following separately (see following sections), but otherwise, they will be considered combustibles.
Some of you might wondering, 'What?! Since when are plastics burnable?'. This was confusing for me since I was taught from young that plastics can't be burn.
In fact, discerning if plastic should be sorted into burnable or not is confusing even for the Japanese. In the past, Japan actually designated all plastics as non-combustibles. These plastics had to be brought to a landfill to disintegrate over time. With limited land space and the advancement of incinerator technology, plastics can now be burned without producing harmful toxins.
These basically refers to things that cannot be burned, although once again, some can be tricky to discern. They include of the following
In most municipalities, you might be required to sort the following recyclables separately (see following sections), but if not, they will be considered as incombustibles.
In many municipalities, you will be required to sort hazardous materials as they can potentially lead to a fire or explosion when mixed with other types of garbage. They include:
In the municipalities where there isn't a dedicated collection for each of these, you can sort it as incombustibles, separating it from the rest of the non-hazardous incombustibles.
There are also types of hazardous garbage that cannot be collected by the city at all and you would have to contact specialist companies to dispose of them. Some them include:
As you can tell, it just takes some common sense to tell that these type of items cannot be thrown out normally. Once you suspect that it might be the case, calling the English hotline of your ward office for guidance might be easiest for those who don't understand Japanese.
There are certain types of batteries that the municipality cannot handle and you would have to take to specialty disposal shops.
Specifically, you would need to contact the Button Battery Disposal Center (''''''''''''') to dispose button-type batteries. Contacting them at -266-205 will tell you where you can dispose of them nearby.
This is not to be confused with coin-type batteries with CR or BR model number, which can be disposed of normally (as hazardous materials).
Additionally, for NiCad (nickel'cadmium) batteries, you have to request a professional recycling service to get rid of it. Based on my research, it costs about ¥330 to dispose of one battery. This method only applies to batteries with the 'Ni-Cd' mark. You can usually send the batteries in via regular letter pack from Japan Post. To find a company that supports this, do a search for '''''''''' which means 'NiCad battery disposal'.
The term 'plastic' can be misleading. This does not refer to everything made of plastic, but only plastic packaging and containers, that has the plastic ('') recycling mark.
To differentiate between plastic containers and packaging and plastic products, they are defined by the following definition.
Why do they have to be separated?! Well, in principle, we should recycle as much plastic as possible. However, recycling plastic costs a lot of money, effort and energy.
In Japan, manufacturers and sellers using plastic containers and packaging are responsible for the cost of recycling by law. For example, mayonnaise producers will pay for the cost of recycling mayonnaise bottles. However, the law doesn't yet dictate who will bear the costs for recycling plastic products due to the high costs, thus resulting in this type of sorting requirement.
For the same reason, plastic packaging and containers can only be sorted as plastics if its contents is a product. For example, the plastic packaging around dry cleaning has to be sorted as combustible since it does not package a product. The clothes isn't the product, but rather the cleaning service is. This can be a tricky concept to get a hang of.
Only clean plastics, regardless of the mark, should be sorted into plastic. If it is dirty and cannot be cleaned or does not have the plastic recycling mark, you should sort it into combustibles.
Recyclable plastics include:
A few exceptions are
Once again, each municipality have their specific rules. For example, some municipality determine this by judging if the plastic is thicker than a cash card.
Cans will usually be collected on the same day as glass bottles. These are usually anything with the aluminum or steel recycle mark.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit urban garbage treatment and recycling equipment.
Aluminum cans (like those used to water your plants) and kettles can also be sorted into this category.
The metal lids or caps of food or drink cans should be sorted as incombustibles.
Depending on the municipality, spray cans can be considered incombustibles or recyclable. In the latter case, you would be able to see a dedicated day for spray cans (''''') in the garbage calendar.
There aren't really many variations when it comes to spray cans, so these should be easy to sort.
Basically any plastic bottle with the number one in a triangle mark. However, note that the labels and the caps should be sorted as plastic.
Some containers, like the large one attached to water dispensers, can come with either a PET bottle or plastic mark, so be sure to check to sort accurately.
This includes:
If the paper has come in contact with kitchen waste or is wet, please sort them as combustibles.
However, there are certain type of papers that should not be sorted as paper as they contain certain properties and chemicals that will cause problems during the recycling process if mixed with other types of paper. They include the following (source):
Besides the obvious t-shirts, pants etc, this category includes the following:
However, the following should not be sorted into clothing, but instead, as combustibles:
Clothing will usually be collected on the 'paper' collection day. In cities where they do not specify that clothing must be sorted separately, you should sort it as combustibles.
Note that while some cities allow you to sort this as combustible garbage, burning your clothes in a bonfire, to dispose of them, is against the law.
Similar to paper, the clothing have to be clean for it to be recycled. In some municipality, clothing that are too dirty or torn should be sorted into burnable garbage.
This is a category of its own because it requires a special disposal method.
What type of garbage is considered oversized? Once again, the specific dimensions differs from municipality to municipality. For example, in Chuo-ku, any item that has any of its sides measure more than 30cm is considered oversized.
A few things to note
Some items cannot be disposed of by the above method, which includes
Please refer to this section on how to dispose of them.
Think your work is done just by sorting your garbage? Not so fast. Before you put that garbage in your trashcan, you have to prepare them for disposal. This is basic etiquette in Japan although there are varying standards for different people as to how far they will go. In this section, I will state the best practices.
Not to be confused with plastics (packaging).
If the plastic product doesn't fit into the garbage bag but doesn't fulfill the size requirement for oversized garbage, you can paste a paper on it with the words ''''.
Otherwise, plastic products should be placed in a transparent garbage bag (if there aren't municipality-specific garbage bags you have to use), separate from the other kinds of combustibles.
Note that even with paper, you cannot bundle all paper types together in one bundle. You have to bundle them into the following types.
Note that the way you bundle paper depends on the type of paper. For magazines, newspaper and cardboard, you would have to use rope. For the others, you can use a paper bag, envelope or paper box (note that this is different to cardboard box, which can't be used) to contain them.
For plastic food containers like meat/fish trays or bento containers, wash and dry them before disposal. It doesn't have to be perfect spotless, ie. some marks leftover is okay.
If you throw out broken glass as it is, you risk causing injuries to those handling your garbage. Therefore, special precautions should be taken with the following steps:
Note that the above only applies to broken glass that is not oversized. For how to dispose of oversized garbage, see here.
If you do not want to risk injury by handling broken glass, there are specialists that can help. However, they aren't cheap. It can be about ¥20,000 depending on the size and volume of broken glass. Enquiring via the English hotline of your ward office will help you get the right contact.
While kitchen waste can be disposed of as combustibles, ensure the following is done. As a rule of thumb, kitchen waste should be as dry as possible when disposed. Here are a few ways to ensure this
This is another one of the factors that is dependent on where you live. For example, in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo garbage disposal is free.
However, in Tachikawa-shi, Tokyo you have to buy city-specific garbage bags. For both combustible and incombustible garbage, it costs ¥10 for 5', ¥20 for 10', ¥40 for 20', and ¥80 for 40' for each garbage bag.
In Kyoto-shi, it costs ¥5 for 5', ¥10 for 10', ¥20 for 20', ¥30 for 30', and ¥45 for 45' bags. Bags for recyclables are costed differently at ¥5 for 10', ¥10 for 20', ¥15 for 30', and ¥22 for 45' bags.
As you can see, the prices are different for each municipality. You can usually buy these garbage bags from the supermarkets or convenience stores.
No matter where you live, you have to pay for oversized garbage disposal. Note that the following costs do not apply to oversized electrical appliances with separate disposal costs.
Basically, you have to head to the convenience store and buy a seal called ''''''' (sodai gomi shi iru). There are different types of seals which cost differently and you have to buy the one that corresponds with the oversized garbage you are disposing.
Once again, the pricing differs depending on where you live, but for reference, you can refer to the following prices
For these four home electrical appliances, the costs are different. This one depends specifically on the manufacturer and size of the appliances. Here's how to find the exact prices.
As a reference, here is how the prices can look like:
So, what are the correct steps to disposing of oversized garbage in Japan? First of all, it's not like the rest of the garbage where you bring it down to the garbage station; there are a few more steps involved:
Basically, if any of the sides (height, width or depth) measure more than 30cm, it's oversized.
This part is tricky because different municipality has different costs and even different ways of costing.
TIP If you understand spoken Japanese, then skip to step 2.
For example, in the case of Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, they have a fixed price for the type of garbage, rather than the size.
It's mostly the same for Meguro-ku, but they also have some types of oversized garbage that require you to measure to get the cost. For large storage units like a CD rack or locker, you would have to measure to get the cost.
Measuring and summing up the longest two sides of the item
Sadly, there is no way to escape checking your municipality's specific pricing chart. You have to search for the keywords, [your city], followed by '''''''''''' which means 'oversized garbage disposal fee table'. So, if you live in Shibuya-ku, then you should search for '''' '''''''''''.
You can't just bring down oversized garbage to your garbage station and be expected to be taken away. You have to inform the oversized garbage reception center of your municipality in advance. To get the number, do a search for [your city] followed by '''''''''''' (oversized garbage center), for example, ''''''''''''''''.
Many municipalities, like Meguro-ku for example, also provides online application.
Tell them the following information (they will ask you for it, so please get them ready before calling)
The person on the will confirm the collection day and inform you of the cost and type of seals to buy, confirming your research in step 1.
Once you know the cost, you need to buy the seal. This is your way of paying the municipality for doing the work to take out your oversized garbage.
Luckily, buying the seal is extremely convenient, literally, since almost every convenience store, like Seven Eleven, LAWSON, FamilyMart, etc, in your area will have it. Supermarkets and drug stores will likely also sell them.
At the store, the seals won't be displayed so you have to ask the cashier for the seal (sodai gomi shori ken) or you can say 'gomi seal' and they'll probably get it. Next, tell the casher which one you want at what price, based on the information in steps 1 and 2. At times, multiple seals would have to be bought for one piece of garbage to hit the exact price.
For example, in the Shibuya-ku example, it costs ¥400 to dispose of an air humidifer, for which they specify that you should buy two pieces of the A seal at ¥200 each.
Now that you have the seal(s) in hand, you have to write your name on it and paste it on your oversized garbage. Then, bring it down on the day of collection before 8 am. Take note of the following
For a special group of four types of large electrical appliances, referred literally as four home appliances (''4''), you cannot simple dispose of it normally nor via the oversized garbage method. These are appliances that require specialists to dismantle and recycle. They are:
An important distinction here is that the above only applies to home appliances. Professional grade appliances like refrigerators used in a restaurant's kitchen, temperature regulator of rice, or ice cream freezers used in shops cannot be disposed of in this manner.
There are a few ways you can dispose of them:
When you buy a new refrigerator, reputable stores like Bic Camera or Yamada Denki, will usually offer to help dispose of your existing one as part of their service. I would advise you to take advantage of it.
When my washing machine broke down, my brother-in-law gave me his unused one. In this case, I had to get rid of the broken one myself. Doing it yourself is probably the cheapest way to do so. This is how you do it:
Basically, you need to take a photo of the specifications which can be found on a sticker behind the appliance. It will contain information like the manufacture name and voltage.
Unlike the seal for oversized garbage, only one place sells the ticket; the post office.
You need to go down to the post office and buy a ticket. Show the clerk the photo, with the manufacturer's name and size being the most important information for them to determine the cost. The clerk will tell you exactly how much you need to pay for the ticket.
This part is the most tedious. I had to borrow a car and get help stuffing a broken washing machine into a small car and bring it down to a recycling center. To find the nearest recycling center, do a search for [your city] followed by ''''''''''''''. For example, if you live in Shibuya-ku, you would search for '''' '''''''''''''.
Most Japanese would request a company to collect it for them, at an extra cost. The keyword to search here is ''''''''''''' which means 'home appliances recycle shop'.
As you can see, garbage disposal isn't the easiest walk in the park, but something you'll get used to after some time. If you have any questions that haven't been answered in this guide, please leave a comment and I will add the answer. I hope this has been helpful and enjoy your life in Japan.
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