Tokyo residents snub new rule on use of transparent trash bags

TOKYO — A new ordinance requiring Tokyo residents to use transparent trash bags has created a stink among those who contend that garbage is a private affair.

The city ordinance, which took effect on Friday, was designed to prevent garbage collectors from being cut by glass hidden among the refuse.

It was also a way of forcing Tokyo’s eight million residents to comply with an environmental law requiring them to set aside burnable trash in separate bags.

Despite the possible merits of the clear-bag ordinance, its implementation has few supporters.

The last straw for many residents appears to have been another part of the ordinance that requires residents to fill out name tags on their household trash bags.

The proviso provoked vehement protests from residents, who took to a Japanese form of civil disobedience by ignoring the rules.

Only a few clear trash bags could be seen along the residential streets of the nation’s capital on Friday. The normal black ones were out in force.

Because of the strident protests, officials have given Tokyo residents a 3½-month "grace period" to get used to the new ordinance.

And officials have also backed off from a threat that those who do not write their names on the bags will not get their trash picked up.

Objections to the new ordinance came from all parts of Japanese society, including show-business celebrities, sumo-wrestling champions, baseball stars and opposition politicians.

City officials were receiving more than 600 phone calls a day from angry residents by the middle of last month.

"Tokyo is trying to control people without trusting them," said a statement from the Tokyo office of the Japanese Communist Party.

Popular Tokyo singer Re-mi Hirano added: "Having to write your name is a terrible thing. It’s a violation of your private life."

Protested Ms Akiko Suzuki, a young housewife: "This is ridiculous.

"Tomorrow, old ladies will be spying on trash bags to spy on their neighbours."

It has been said that one can tell a lot about a person by looking at his trash and, in Japan, where social pressures are strong, that can be humiliating.

Bank statements, love letters, school report cards and even erotic materials all turn up in trash.

One of the ways Tokyo residents are plotting to protect their trash-bag secrets is to place the rubbish in coloured department-store sacks before putting it in the transparent bags. — AFP.

Chaos as Austrians dump packing materials at stores

VIENNA — Austrians dumped all kinds of packing material at shops and supermarkets on Friday as a new decree, which aims to reduce packaging waste by four-fifths by the year 2000, became effective.

"It is chaos! Some just dump it right on the counter," said a Viennese supermarket branch manager.

Confusion soon started about what could be disposed where, and if not, why.

Issued last autumn, the decree requires producers, dealers and consumers to return, collect, separate and recycle packing materials.

This includes sales packaging, like toothpaste tubes; containers which serve only to promote sales, like the carton in which the tube is packed; and transport packaging, like pallets and barrels.

The move is expected to reduce packaging costs by 4 billion to 5 billion Austrian schillings (S$536 million to S$670 million) as it makes excess packaging unnecessary and more expensive.

According to the decree, shops must accept all packing materials — except wrappers — returned or left by consumers, unless they set up a collection and disposal system with containers within easy reach.

Business and industry had set up the ARA Waste-recycling Enterprise, which, officials said, had yet to sign 1,000 out of a planned 10,000 contracts with the country’s major producers and distributors.

ARA guarantees to collect and dispose of the producers’ and distributors’ packaging waste in return for a license fee. The fee would depend on the materials, its volume and the extent to which it could be recycled or re-used.

Consumers have to separate and dispose of whatever packaging they take home, or return It to the shop or collecting point.

The recycling facilities have come under heavy criticism.

The city of Salzburg even refused to install collecting points for plastic waste.

Association for Consumer Information director Fritz Koppe said the disposal system was "absolutely unacceptable".

He said collecting points were out of reach of consumers.

But recent polls showed that most Austrians were prepared to spend extra time separating and disposing of the waste as long as it would be recycled properly.

A hotline was installed at the Environment Ministry to help those who could not understand the sometimes-confusing separation criteria.

Although the decree provided fines of up to 40,000 schillings, it Is mainly aimed at deliberate violations and does not punish consumers who drop a plastic bag accidentally into the wrong container. — UPI.

Source : The Sunday Times, October 3, 1993

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