Late last year, Bunkyo-ku completely changed the composition of the Burnables list. We are now advised to put our plastics, rubber, styrofoam and vinyl items in with our food scraps and paper rubbish for burning. This is due to a new incinerator system that they are calling “Thermal Recycling.”

So little material is now Unburnable (foil, metal lids, broken pottery, broken glass) that it feels like we aren’t sorting our garbage at all. The Unburnable bin used to quickly fill with plastic bags and packaging. Now it sits there waiting for us to break a lightbulb or a plate.

Of course we recycle bottles, cans, PET and paper as well, so there is sorting to be done. But wow, does the Burnables bin fill up fast.