GOMI is an acronym for the Garbage Organization & Monitoring Institution and you can get your degree right here!  You finally made it to Japan and you thought that you were well prepared – you’ve mastered the currency conversion, you’ve memorized Japanese for Busy People and you’ve read all the tips and trick that you can find about living in Japan.  But there is one more thing that you need to do to make your life in Japan a lot easier.  In order to be accepted by your neighbors and avoid receiving nasty notes in your mailbox from your landlord (that you can’t read) you need to master GOMI.

I’d wager you think that recycling is a good thing and I’d even bet that you think that you already know how to do it.  Think again, dealing with your garbage (gomi) in Japan is no easy task!   Even if you come from a place like California where recycling is commonplace you will find out that the Japanese take recycling to a whole new level and that’s where GOMI comes in.  It is the mission of the organization to educate you on the proper sorting and disposal of your trash and to ensure the survival of the GOMI Guru.

Evidence of recycling is apparent everywhere in Japan.  Apartment buildings have whole rooms dedicated to it and almost every convenience store and train platform has at least two receptacles for trash conveniently placed for your educated  use.   But do you know how to use these facilities correctly?  Study hard and you may be one of the lucky ones who can attain the status of a GOMI Guru.

GOMI Level 1 – Three Categories

The Tokyo International Communications Committee offers up a handy, if somewhat overwhelming, guide to trash collection in the Tokyo metropolitan area where they describe the three main categories into which you need to separate your trash as follows:

1. Combustible trash (moeru gomi), which includes kitchen garbage, clothes and paper products.

2. Non-combustible  trash (moenai gomi), which includes plastics, metals and dishes.

3. Recyclable Trash (shigen gomi)which includes items such as PET bottles, newspaper, cardboard and batteries.

Each of these categories of gomi are collected on a different day and need to be placed in the appropriate bag designated by your local community.  These bags can be purchased at your local supermarket or convenience store.

That’s not so bad, you say – I can do that in my sleep.  Congratulations, you can claim GOMI 1 proficiency!

GOMI Level 2 – Segregation of Recyclable Trash

You need to further separate the recyclable trash into the various receptacles provided at your apartment complex (even your local McDonald’s will be in on the act).  This is not so hard if the collection day is close at hand and most of the bins have something in them.  Place the cans with the cans, the plastic bottles with the other bottles etc., but where do you put that battery, what about that burnt out light bulb?  Not only do you need to be aware of this at home – you even need to do at McDonald’s…

I challenge you to do your recycling the day after the pick-up.  If you can correctly segregate your recyclable trash then you can claim GOMI 2 proficiency!

GOMI Level 3 – Oversized Garbage

Trash is classified as oversized (sodai gomi) if it is larger than 30 centimeters in width .  This classification includes such things as bicycles and furniture.  There is usually a fee and you will most likely need to make an appointment for the pick up of sodai gomi.  This fee and the rules surrounding the pick up of such items varies from city to city, even within Tokyo.  A further set of rules applies to appliances like televisions and refrigerators and yet another set for computers and other electronics.

If you can arrange for the proper disposal of that undersized chair that got broken because no normal sized foreigner was ever meant to sit in it then you can claim GOMI 3 proficiency!

GOMI GURU

Let me warn you, if you want to become a GOMI Guru you will have to make some drastic changes to your lifestyle.  To become a GOMI Guru you will need to master the art of the furoshiki, and you can never again eat with disposable chopsticks!

I have not yet had the honor of meeting a GOMI Guru as I think that this species is now endangered and has been since the invention of the disposable chopstick.  Authorities are working diligently to ensure the survival of the species.

The Garbage Organization & Monitoring Institution thanks you for your time today and is doing a survey to determine the state of GOMI in Japan.  Please let them know your level of GOMI proficiency in the comments.  Your participation in this unscientific poll for this imaginary institution is appreciated.

This article was originally published at 7:10 to Tokyo.

Image Credit: Personal Collection