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D Balakrishnan's avatar

I feel so clean myself after reading this piece. It holds a mirror to us in India.

As a child I remember being told in wonder, stories about the speed and punctuality of Japanese bullet trains, as also their sense of cleanliness and wizardry with gadgets.

As an adult, the story of those stories continues with the same sense of wonder.

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Gianni Simone's avatar

・Very interesting story. As someone who has spent the last 30 years in Japan, I must say that not few Japanese like to cut corners when it comes to the weekly garbage disposal.

・On the subject of the lack of dustbins in public places, one of my pet peeves is that all trash containers have disappeared from train stations BUT the ones next to the automatic vending machines located on the platforms. In other words, they kindly let you dispose of your garbage as long as it's something you have bought at the station.

・More importantly - and worryingly - apart from the sad fact that, as you pointed out, Japan uses his financial might to send a lot of its trash to other Asian countries, the horrible truth about recycling is that Japanese cities actually burn a lot of the plastic they are supposed to recycle. Check out this interesting story:

https://metropolisjapan.com/unwrapping-the-reality-of-recycling-in-japan/

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