The Tokyo Trashcan Paradox

One thing one will notice about japan after visting for just a few days is the lack of public trashcans ("bins" for those who are not from the US.) The paradox is that tokyo is incredibly clean. Considering it is the largest metropolitan area in the world this is mind boggling. It is constantly surprising to me how clean tokyo is. If you have spend any time in other major cities you notice trash and liter is quite common. Some cities are dirtier than others, but tokyo is relatively spotless. You can find litter and trash on the ground occasionally but so much less than any other major city.

The thing that really makes no sense to me is that it is not due to an abundance of places to throw your litter. There are no trashcans on street corners, in front of shops, outside of train stations. The only places to throw stuff away is there may be one place inside of a subway station, inside some convenience stores near the front, or places which only accept cans or bottles near large banks of vending machines. Considering how japan is about convenience I find myself walking with the wrapper or can of something quite often. There are convenience stores everywhere to grab a snack and countless vending machines to grab a drink. Yet I have to walk for blocks before I can find somewhere to throw the wrapper or bottle.

This is strange compared to my last time in NYC where I remember there being trash cans about every 20 meters, on every major street. However those trash cans were full. Overflowing. Spilling trash into the street, which was already covered in liter. Intuition tells you that NYC needs even more trash cans. So what do people in tokyo do with their trash? It seems the answer is to hold onto it for long periods of time until you find a place. Maybe keep it in your bag until you go into a subway station and seek out the one trash can, or keep it until you get home. The bottle and can issue seems to be that you don't take your beverage with you. There is some notion that you get a coffee or soft drink from the vending machine... and stand by the vending machine until you are done. Then put the can/bottle into the receptacle next to the vending machines. Not all vending machines have such a place, but most of the areas with high concentrations of vending machines do. If you are going to walk with your Calpis or C.C.Lemon or Match, you will probably have to take the can home with you.

It almost feels like the fact that you usually have no where to throw your trash, has trained the residence of the city to keep their trash with them. Rather than the thought "I have no where to put this, I will throw it on the ground" that seems to occur in other cities, tokyoites don't even think that way. They never expected to have somewhere to dispose of the item in the first place. They knew that grabbing that boss coffee meant they had to carry the can home, it part of the deal. At least thats my theory on the Trashcan Paradox.

Japanese Lesson:
Okawariお代わり
"refill" or "another"
When you are at a bar, and you ordered something by pointing to it on a menu but don't know what it is called, instead of trying to find out the name, just say "Okawari" to ask for another one.