Japan and Garbage

Japan follows and excels in separating garbage. Just look at the following picture, taken at St. Luke’s hospital.

From left to right: bin for combustibles, bin for plastic and plastic bags, bin for PET-bottles, and bin for cans.

And now look at the tray with the three drawers.

The top drawer is for newspapers, the middle one for magazines and the bottom drawer is for mixed papers.

Here in Cologne we separate paper, plastic, and ordinary garbage at the homes, some regions also have organic refuse bins. To do so the bins have signs in German, Turkish, and Russian. We take our glass garbage to certain collecting points, separating into white, green, and brown glass.

The roads are clean. Hauses are clean. People just don't leave their garbage.

I've already written on garbage separation after having visited a Zen monastery in Beijing: Organic Issues at a Zen Buddhist Temple http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/05/organic-issues-at-zen-buddhist-temple.html  

Other blogposts about this travel to Japan:
Small Shrines Along the Road http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/small-shrines-along-road.html
Cherry Blossoms (桜の花) http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/cherry-blossoms.html  

Organic Issues at a Zen Buddhist Temple

Last year, coming from North Korea I also paid a visit to Beijing and especially to a Zen Buddhist Temple near Beijing, the Longquan Temple (龙泉寺): http://scenery.cultural-china.com/en/128Scenery10628.html

Interior of the Temple

 

Statue of a sitting Buddha (Maitreya)

Newer Wing of Longquan Monastery


I always thought of Germany as a world champion in waste separation, but at the monastery they separate organic wastes, paper, packaging carton, metal, glass, plastic, plastic bottles, and batteries. What an achievement!

Waste separation

No wonder that in the vicinity you will find other activities, which are directed to achieve goals of a beginning organic/green movement. I’ve been able to attend to a portion of the 2011 China International LOHAS – Organic and Biodynamic Agricultural Forum. As the international speakers mainly came from Germany or the German speaking Alps region, we could of course talk in German. I saw some very eager Chinese people trying to translate the English text being presented. It has been a hard task as the Chinese vocabulary of biodynamic technical terms is still in the making.

 

2011 China International LOHAS – Organic and Biodynamic Agricultural Forum

 Discussions at a break

It takes a while to get out of Beijing, but it has been worth the effort.

You might also be interested in how to get to the temple and “A Very Special Display of Metta”: http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2011/10/very-special-display-of-metta.html