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有害ごみ
筆者の住む所沢市では今年度から、ごみの分別を、5種類(燃えるごみ、燃やせないごみ、有害ごみ、びん・缶、粗大ごみ)から6種類に増やした。従来の「燃やせないごみ」を、「燃やさないごみ」と「プラスチックごみ」に分けたのだ。だが、「燃やさないごみ」には、豆腐容器やラップなど、我々がプラスチックと呼ぶものが含まれ、「プラスチックごみ」には、弁当箱などプラスチックでないものも含まれている。このややこしい分類に筆者が一言…
Poison Garbage
By DOUGLAS LUMMIS
Garbage day has become a big problem in my neighborhood. The city office has recently added a new category, so now we have six kinds of garbage. What used to be called "unburnable garbage" has been divided in two: "unburnable garbage" and "plastic garbage." I had always thought that plastic was exactly the thing we were not supposed to burn. But now plastic is carried off to some distant place where it is burned in special furnaces, safely (so they say).
Some of the categories are easy to understand. "Large garbage" is a matter of judging the size. "Bottles and cans" means just bottles and cans. "Harmful garbage" means batteries, mercury thermometers and fluorescent light tubes (But the name is confusing, because much of the unburnable garbage is also harmful).
Burnable garbage is a strange category, as it includes things that do not burn. Ashes, for example, or the sand from your cat's toilet or seashells. Perhaps "burnable" describes "things that, when put in a fire, do not harm."
But the big problem is distinguishing "plastic garbage" from "unburnable garbage." (Actually "unburnable" is a mistranslation. The instructions from the city office do not say "unburnable" (moyasenai) but "not to be burnt" (moyasanai). This is because many of the "unburnables" burn quite well, but when they do they produce poison gas.) Many of the items in the nonplastic category are things we have always called "plastic": kitchen wrap, tofu boxes, egg cartons, ham and bacon packages, "plastic" belts and raincoats. On the other hand, plastic foam containers for noodles, vegetables, bento, candy or yogurt go with the "plastic" garbage to be burnt.
How do you tell a bacon tray from a mushroom tray? And anyway, who can remember all this? What it means, in our house at least, is that on "plastic" and "unburnable" garbage day, we sit down and go through the bag item by item, checking each smelly piece against the chart. Or, not having time to do that, we postpone it, and garbage piles up in the kitchen and the basement.
My question is: If this stuff is so poisonous, why are they manufacturing it?
And why do we, the consumers, spend hours each week cleaning up this junk that never should have been manufactured?
Recently I have started taking action against this situation. At the market where I shop, after I pass through the checkout stand, I open up all the packages of food and transfer the contents to simple plastic (burnable) bags. (It would be better to bring reusable containers, but I haven't advanced that far yet.) Then I deposit all the trays, packages, etc. in the market's garbage can. I didn't ask for any of this stuff; let them figure out how to divide it up.
After I started doing this, I noticed a lot of other people doing the same.
If we all do it, the stores will be forced to change their packaging procedures. And garbage day will get a lot simpler.
Garbage day has become a big problem in my neighborhood. The city office has recently added a new category, so now we have six kinds of garbage. What used to be called "unburnable garbage" has been divided in two: "unburnable garbage" and "plastic garbage." I had always thought that plastic was exactly the thing we were not supposed to burn. But now plastic is carried off to some distant place where it is burned in special furnaces, safely (so they say).
Some of the categories are easy to understand. "Large garbage" is a matter of judging the size. "Bottles and cans" means just bottles and cans. "Harmful garbage" means batteries, mercury thermometers and fluorescent light tubes (But the name is confusing, because much of the unburnable garbage is also harmful).
Burnable garbage is a strange category, as it includes things that do not burn. Ashes, for example, or the sand from your cat's toilet or seashells. Perhaps "burnable" describes "things that, when put in a fire, do not harm."
But the big problem is distinguishing "plastic garbage" from "unburnable garbage." (Actually "unburnable" is a mistranslation. The instructions from the city office do not say "unburnable" (moyasenai) but "not to be burnt" (moyasanai). This is because many of the "unburnables" burn quite well, but when they do they produce poison gas.) Many of the items in the nonplastic category are things we have always called "plastic": kitchen wrap, tofu boxes, egg cartons, ham and bacon packages, "plastic" belts and raincoats. On the other hand, plastic foam containers for noodles, vegetables, bento, candy or yogurt go with the "plastic" garbage to be burnt.
How do you tell a bacon tray from a mushroom tray? And anyway, who can remember all this? What it means, in our house at least, is that on "plastic" and "unburnable" garbage day, we sit down and go through the bag item by item, checking each smelly piece against the chart. Or, not having time to do that, we postpone it, and garbage piles up in the kitchen and the basement.
My question is: If this stuff is so poisonous, why are they manufacturing it?
And why do we, the consumers, spend hours each week cleaning up this junk that never should have been manufactured?
Recently I have started taking action against this situation. At the market where I shop, after I pass through the checkout stand, I open up all the packages of food and transfer the contents to simple plastic (burnable) bags. (It would be better to bring reusable containers, but I haven't advanced that far yet.) Then I deposit all the trays, packages, etc. in the market's garbage can. I didn't ask for any of this stuff; let them figure out how to divide it up.
After I started doing this, I noticed a lot of other people doing the same.
If we all do it, the stores will be forced to change their packaging procedures. And garbage day will get a lot simpler.
Shukan ST: July 31, 1998
(C) All rights reserved
- Garbage day
- ごみの日
- city office
- 市役所
- category
- 分類
- What used to be called 〜
- 以前 〜 と呼ばれていたもの
- "unburnable garbage"
- (市役所の規定する)「燃やせないごみ」
- "plastic garbage"
- 「プラスチックごみ」
- is carried off to 〜
- 〜 へ持ち去られる
- distant
- 遠くの
- furnaces
- 焼却炉
- "Large garbage"
- 「粗大ごみ」
- Harmful
- 有害な
- batteries
- 電池
- mercury thermometers
- 水銀体温計
- fluorescent light tubes
- 蛍光灯
- is confusing
- まぎらわしい
- Ashes
- 灰
- seashells
- 貝殻
- is distinguishing 〜 from 〜
- 〜 と 〜 を区別することだ
- mistranslation
- 誤訳
- instructions
- 指導
- produce poison gas
- 有害ガスを発生する
- nonplastic category
- 市が規定する「燃やさないごみ」のこと
- kitchen wrap
- 食品用のラップ
- egg cartons
- 卵の容器
- On the other hand
- 一方
- plastic foam containers
- 発泡プラスチックの容器
- go with 〜
- 〜 と一緒に出す
- tell 〜 from 〜
- 〜 と 〜 を区別する
- go through the bag item by item
- ごみ袋の中をひとつひとつ調べる
- smelly piece
- におうごみ
- against the chart
- 分類表に照らし合わせて
- not having time to do that
- そうする時間がないときには
- postpone
- 先延ばしにする
- piles up
- 積み重なる
- basement
- 地下室
- this stuff
- ごみ
- poisonous
- 有害な
- (are)manufacturing
- 製造している
- consumers
- 消費者
- spend hours each week 〜
- 〜 に毎週何時間も費やす
- junk
- ごみ
- have started taking action against 〜
- 〜 に対して働き始めた
- pass through 〜
- 〜 を通り抜ける
- checkout stand
- レジ
- transfer 〜 to 〜
- 〜 を 〜 に移す
- contents
- 中身
- plastic bags
- ビニール袋
- reusable
- 再利用できる
- haven't advanced that far yet
- まだそこまで進んでいない
- deposit
- 捨てる
- let them figure out how to divide up
- ごみの分け方は売り手の方で考えてもらおう
- packaging procedures
- 包装の仕方