Here in the city I live in, garbage is taken very seriously ― very seriously. Instead of a single bin to dump everything into like I was used to back in the States, all garbage must be separated into three parts: burnable, non-burnable, and recyclable. Each of these garbages have their own distinctly colored, required bag: blue, red, and green respectively.

The bags used for each of these are specially-marked garbage that must be purchased from the local convenience or supermarket store and you should always have extra on hand, because when you use that last blue bag is when you have something you really need to be thrown away that’ll stink the house.

It takes a little bit to get used to when compared to what I was used to. Back at home I think there was a recycling option you could sign up for, which would yield a small green bin to put certain few things in to, but it was not at all common to see. So naturally to look at my garbage and try to decide what kind of garbage it is is still a little strange. Though I hear that this city has it light with only three different bags, there are others in this prefecture that have many more colored bags.