Friday, November 09, 2007

Pockets full of shit

The first time I came to Japan, I noticed a complete abscence of public bins in Japan. Yet littering doesn't seem to be a problem apart from the occasional turfing of a cigarette but out the window.
This time I'm getting around on foot and discovered, that places that sell you shit are also expected to provide you with bins, so usually you use the bins out the front of a convenience store or one of the recycling bins that are increasingly paired up with vending machines.
I liked this because it smacked of responsibilty, however I must confirm that tatamae (officially stated position, presentation) is the most important thing because this relationship between the waste producers and those responsible for disposal seems to not have produced any result in the way of reducing packaging. I scratch my head at the logic behind buying a 600ml bottle of drink (half the price that it is in Oz) and then putting it in a 600ml bottle sized individual plastic bag. THEN providing a recycle bin and a combustables bin (japan simply doesn't have the land to use land fills).
In the meantime knowing the futility of this seemingly wise policy, I and up having to walk from Combini to Combini stuffing packaging and wrappers into my pockets (so as to have a free hand for photo taking) and feel like a hobo as I empty my pockets into the bin of a store I don't intend to buy anything from 500m away.
Everythree days (people should know I don't rotate my shorts that often) I empty out my pockets to find those bits and pieces of wrapper, excess packaging etc that invariably slips below my coin stash and thus never gets disposed of.
Fucking shit.

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