This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Singing the recycling blues because you have to separate your chipboard from your newspaper, your steel from your aluminum, your #1 from your #2 plastic? Pantywaists! The residents of Kamikatsu, Japan have no fewer than 34 categories into which they must sort their recyclables. And there are a lot of rules, too: all bottles, cans and plastic wrap must be washed and newspapers must be tied with twine made from recycled milk cartons. Chopsticks are recycled into paper; cooking oil becomes fertilizer; food scraps get composted. Right now, Kamikatsu has an amazing 80% recycling rate. Impressive, yes but not good enough for the die-hard Kamikatsuites. Their goal: a Zero G environment. Zero G for Zero Garbage.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.