system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
I've done some traveling, but I haven't made it as far as Japan yet, what's up with the trash?

We were in Canada recently and I was a little disappointed that the milk we bought didn't come in a bag at all.
gpt
I lived in Aichi prefecture in Japan up until 2012.  You're expected to separate your trash and place it at designated locations in your area, on specified days for the type of trash.  Dropoff areas are usually within reasonable walking distance.

You purchase trash bags for each type - burnable, PET/plastic, etc.  The labels on the bags are also color coded to denote type of trash in case you can't read Japanese.  For cans/glass, there are usually large bins at the dropoff sites to dump them in.

You're also required to clean/prep the trash, e.g. rinse out cans and bottles.  I found it interesting that for clear plastic bottles, you remove the label and lid and put them with the burnable trash.  Only the bottle itself goes with the PET/plastic trash.  My guess is that's because the bottle is the only recyclable component.

In the area I lived, the non-burnable trash dropoff sites would usually have volunteers from the neighborhood checking to make sure you did it right.  The bags you buy are transparent (except bags for burnable trash - those aren't because who wants to look at mush and fish parts), so it's easy to visually inspect.