A few Saturdays a year the school organizes a recycle day for the town.  I took my camera with me bright and early on this sunny February day to pass on to you just how serious recycling is in Yachiyo.  

When I first got to Japan, recycling was pretty much non existent and most schools burned garbage in an incinerator, the same way many people and companies got rid of their excess garbage.  Around 1998 the recycling movement was introduced by the government and things pretty much changed over night (I am hoping for such quick uptime on the non smoking movement that is gaining momentum as well).  Schools stopped burning garbage (in many cases reluctantly) and started collecting paper and other recyclables.  Although the amount of items that can be recycled is still less than we recycle in Canada, the community effort in the program is commendable.

The whole town gets involved in this event.  The school sends out announcements asking people to round up their recyclables and bring them in to the determined location.  Some people pack their cars and bring stuff in and some neighborhoods just have people leave stuff out on the road to be collected early in the morning by a neighborhood resident with a big truck and then brought in.  The students all go to the site and organize everything with the teachers.  As with any school event in Japan an abundance of parents also come and help out.

The majority of the work is volunteer and the money raised goes to the PTA.  There are also government incentives like donations matching the amount generated by the recycling effort etc. that help to make the whole thing worthwhile financially (in time just the environmental reasons will be motivational enough I am sure).