Photo: Pakutaso
lifestyle

Kyoto town changes names for burnable, landfill trash so people will think about what they’re doing

3 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Kyoto has a reputation as a place where there’s a second meaning behind people’s choice of words. Often that meaning is meant to subtly nudge the recipient’s behavior in a certain direction, like we’ve seen with “You have so many friends” or “You have such a nice watch.”

And now Kyoto Prefecture’s Kameoka City is doing a little rephrasing that it hopes will make residents rethink their actions. Starting April 1, the city will no longer refer to trash that’s going into the incinerator as “trash to be burned,” but as “trash for which the only option is to burn it.”

▼ They roll off the tongue a little easier in Japanese, as moyasu gomi (top) and moyasu shika nai gomi (bottom)

Screen-Shot-2023-01-19-at-10.21.31.png

In addition, general non-burnable trash that goes into landfills, currently called “trash to be buried” (umetate gomi) will be renamed “trash for which the only option is to bury it” (umetateru shika nai gomi).

So why the changes? The logic is that the weightier-sounding finality of the new names will prompt people to think if burning or burying are really the only options for a particular piece of trash, which naturally means thinking about if it can be recycled instead. April 1 will also see a revision of Kameoka’s recycling ordinances, with new categories and pickup dates for categories such as paper, plants and wood, and small metal objects, which will bring the city’s total number of trash types up to 18. Even now, the city’s waste disposal department often finds items that should have been put out on pickup days for recyclables tossed in with trash to be burned, so the time seems right for a reminder that the real classification isn’t supposed to be anything that can be burned or dumped in a landfill, but rather those things that can’t be recycled.

Source: Kyoto Shimbun via Hachima Kiko

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Japanese city changes “burnable trash” bags to “the only option is to burn this trash” bags

-- Titan trash can to be placed near a Coca-Cola vending machine in Oita to help promote recycling

-- Japanese otaku now have special trash box just for merch of their former anime and idol crushes

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

3 Comments
Login to comment

Imagine being an adult who cannot work out what is burnable trash and what isn't burnable trash. They even send you pictures each year with the free calendar! Unbelievable.

Did you try to read the full article? As you can see in the following from the article

isn’t supposed to be anything that can be burned or dumped in a landfill, but rather those things that can’t be recycled.

The purpose of the name change is to get people to think more about recycling rather than just what can be burnt or can't

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Imagine being an adult who cannot work out what is burnable trash and what isn't burnable trash. They even send you pictures each year with the free calendar! Unbelievable.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites