Japan has these cool tiny little garbage trucks. They are usually spotless beyond belief. Compared to the big dirty behemoths used in the US these are almost like cars. Because Japan recycles 100% of its trash including plastics, and because Japanese products tend to be small, there is generally less trash in Japan.
All trash in Japan, by law must be sorted. All combustibles and plastics are burned and melted down, and then the dried plastic is ground up and mixed into road pavement which makes the roads flexible and resistant to cracking.
Brilliant.
If you come to Japan you’ll see huge thin concrete towers from time to time. These are recycling fracking towers which burn waste and capture all residue including smoke at various stages of combustion. Hence there are few landfills in Japan, and less pollution – again, brilliant. You’ll never see any smoke or smell anything coming from these towers – 100% green. The west could learn a lot from Japan when it comes to waste disposal.
Ikebukuro‘s giant waste recycling tower to the north of the town.
America – the beautiful.