Recycling in Spokane and Nishinomiya

By Reika

The Environment is my recent interest because I’ve had many opportunities to see attractive advertisements that tell people to protect our precious environment. Because of this, I’ve begun to think what I can do for protecting our environment: recycling.　Since I was in elementary school, I’ve learned about the three Rs in science class: reduce, reuse and recycle. I actually worked on the interesting recycle project by using milk cartons made into toilet paper. Both in Spokane and Nishinomiya, students learn the three Rs. There are some similarities and differences of recycling between Spokane and Nishinomiya at school, at home and in public.

Firstly, recycling at public especially supermarkets is more different between Spokane and Nishinomiya than I thought. When people go shopping at supermarkets, they bring eco bags. The eco bag is a cloth bag for the stuff that you buy. Almost all the people in Spokane and Nishinomiya have eco bags because if people in Spokane bring it they have five cents back, and people in Nishinomiya have to pay about five cents for the plastic bags. Because of this system, we try to use the same plastic bags again and again. People don’t want to pay for the bags, so they bring eco bags when they go shopping. It was very interesting and surprising point for me. In addition, there is one big difference between Japanese supermarket Daie and American supermarket Wallmart. In Wallmart, there is a collecting box for plastic bags, but in Daie there are many separate boxes for plastic bottles, plastic trays, bottles, plastic bags and so on. The reason why Japanese have to separate their garbage in many types is the matter of area. Japan is a small island and there isn’t enough space for burying the garbage, so they prefer recycling than burning or buring.

Secondly, recycling at school is similar, but there are few differences between Spokane and Nishinomiya. I visited Cheney High School, and then I interviewed my dearest pen pal about recycling at her school. She told me students separate garbage in four containers: paper, aluminum cans, plastic and bottles. In Mukogawa High School, students separate garbage but only in two containers: burnable refuse and PET bottles. There are no boxes for paper at the high school, so this is a different point between Spokane and Nishinomiya. In addition, almost all of their text books are made from used paper. There are bell marks on their stationary. If you collect a certain amount of bell marks, you can get goods for school such as new balls, new black board cleaner and so on. That makes students think about their environment and how they can protect it by recycling.

Lastly, recycling at home between Spokane and Nishinomiya is the biggest difference. At home, I normally recycle raw garbage. Gardening is one of my mother’s hobbies. We have a four bed in the garden and there we plant some vegetables. Every night, after we cook dinner, we have raw garbage, so we throw it to the garden bed especially egg shells that are known well for the plants. When I visited host family’s house, I found this is a similar point. Both in Spokane and Nishinomiya, we separate garbage. There are lists of acceptable materials for recycling. Spokane’s list is separated into eight sections: batteries, cans, paper bags, cell phones, glass and bottles and jars, magazines and catalogs, newspapers and phone books, and plastics. The Japanese one is separated into five sections: burnable refuse, unburnable refuse, PET bottles, newspaper and small cartons and card board and used clothes, magazines and leaflets and unwanted books and folding cartons. Those are free to throw away; however, for electric appliances, furniture, carpets, bicycles and dead animal bodies collecting fees are charged. The biggest difference between Spokane and Nishinomiya is collecting time. In Spokane, Recycling Products, Inc. collects the trash once a week. On the other hand, in Nishinomiya, the refuse collection list details which items we are able to throw out on which days. That means people in Nishinomiya throw their trash three or four days a week. In addition, people in Spokane throw their recyclables in the blue container, but people in Nishinomiya throw their garbage in plastic bags. They have two kinds of plastic bags. One is for burnable and unburnable garbage, and the other one is for newspaper. We also tie newspaper or magazines with strings and throw them away. We can throw either way. Moreover, there are specific plastic bags for certain cities, so people who live in the cities, they have to use the bags. They can’t use other type of bags. Fortunately, Nishinomiya citizens don’t have to pay for throwing their garbage, but Spokane citizens have to pay for it. This is another difference, too.

There are many similarities and differences between Spokane and Nishinomiya. Because Japan has a smaller area than America, Japanese recycle garbage in specific ways especially at home. Both Spokane and Nishinomiya do recycling at school, at home and in public. There is a word “Mottai nai” in Japanese which means wasteful. That mind is related to how Japanese recycle rubbish and how they live with it. In my prediction, Japanese will tend to be more serious about their recycling, and I hope Americans will care more about their recycling. Both countries will make more efforts about recycling to protect their precious environment in the near future. The most important thing that they should remember is they can break their environment easily but it is very hard to regrow their environment. That is not that easy, and it takes long time to recover it.

References

Nishinomiya City Government Information
Refuse collection (March 3rd, Thu)
http://www.hyogo-ip.or.jp/livingguide/gomi/2hanshin-minami/nishinomiya-en.pdf

Donald Ash, The Japan Guy
Living In Japan: Recycling is an Everyday Thing (March 8th, Tue)
http://www.thejapanguy.com/796/living-in-japan-recycling-is-an-everyday-thing/

Spokane Recycling Products, Inc.
Local Recycling Services (March 8th, Tue)
http://www.spokanerecycling.com/

Nishinomiya City Government Information
Refuse Collection(Mar 27th, Sun)
http://www.nishi.or.jp/homepage/living_guide/en/30eg.pdf