Sunday, October 27, 2013

recycle

I told you that our laptop went to "computer heaven"...well, after we got a "diagnosis" and purchased a new laptop, we went back to talk to the tech support guy.

If our old laptop were in better condition, they could've bought it to re-sell, but since it was kaput, he told us about recycling it.

On the underside of the laptop is this mark (see the photo). He explained that since it has this mark the maker will take it back to recycle at no additional cost to us.

You should know that in Japan, most EVERYTHING costs something to recycle.

For our city (Minoo), if the item fits in the proper recycling bags, then it is usually paid for through taxes.

If it doesn't, our city requires us to pay at least 300 yen, up front, for it to be recycled. The bigger the item, the more you pay.

So, we're always looking for places that will take things (at no extra charge) to be recycled. Like if you buy a sofa, will the company you are buying from, dispose of your old sofa at no extra charge...things like that.

If our computer didn't have this mark, then we would've had to pay about 3000 yen to have it recycled.

I like the fact that the maker is going to send me a package to put the laptop into and send it back to themselves at no extra cost to us.

Does it cost a lot for you to recycle where you live?

4 comments:

Nathalie said...

Great post! In Ukraine, we have one big container near each building for ALL items. Then, an utilising service company takes these items to their plant and special staff there separates the items to paper, plastic, glass and properly utilises them. Organic+all other items don't pass through utilization and just go to the special fields. We pay for this 15 USD per month.
Take care both.

Rowena said...

Really interesting post on how things get recycled there. We pay nothing extra as it's paid for with the usual taxes, but then nobody comes to take our plastic, paper, etc. We have to bring it down ourselves once a week at the recycling drop-off. This is largely due to the fact that since we're so "rural", it costs the community more than we are worth! I believe there's a scheduled pick-up for huge items like refrigerators and what not, and they pick up curbside. If we had to tote our biga** american-style fridge to the street, I really don't see how we could physically manage between the MotH and I.

Of all the recycling options given us, my fave is the "green waste" option because we really don't have an area to burn stuff without disturbing the neighbors air. You can bring in grass/tree trimmings, and I even dispose of vegetable plants at the end of season. The only thing they discourage is watery veggies/fruit (like tomatoes) that are still clinging on the vine. I didn't ask why but my guess is that they want to avoid a stinking mess of rotting fruit on plants.

K and S said...

that is really interesting Nathalie :)

wow the green waste option sounds cool Rowena :)

Take care you two.
Kat

K and S said...

glad you enjoyed this rcUK.

Take care!
Kat