- Scarcity of land
- Japanese have to poop and throw stuff away too
Do they have cutting edge recycling programs?
When I was in Japan, this question came up in a conversation I had with a local. I was told that much of their waste is incinerated due to a lack of real estate for dumps.
I have also been told that incineration is less prevalent in the United States because of concerns over emissions. Maybe so, but as someone who has driven across Staten Island on a July afternoon with the wind blowing the wrong way, I wonder if incineration doesn’t have its advantages.
In Japan, all trash must be separated into two types, burnable and non-burnable. The widespread use of incinerators means Japan has extremely high levels of dioxin pollution. Unburnable trash is usually buried, and dump space is scarce, so new dumps are being opened in pristine mountain areas. It’s disgusting.
Japan also has an abysmal record at recycling, although newspapers and magazines do tend to be recycled, resulting in the worst quality newsprint I’ve ever seen.
When I lived in Japan, I could not help but see ecological disaster everywhere I went. The beaches are polluted with garbage, drivers think nothing of leaving their engines idle for hours on end while parked, and raw sewage is routinely dumped straight into waterways and the ocean. Ecological consciousness is almost unheard of in Japan.