Life Hack

How to Recycle and Dispose Your Stuff ?

July. 02,2022

Though it is best to giving away stuff that you no longer need but still functioning and in good condition to people who may need it. But in case of moving out if you really running out of time to post of if there is no adopter contact you in time, or if the stuff is really in a bad condition and nothing you can do but throwing it away; here are How to Recycle and Dispose Your Stuff cheaply and properly.

Payment On-delivery Computer Recyclers

Some appliances are inherently more recyclable than others. For example, you will have a lot of trouble trying to find anyone willing to take an old printer off your hands—they break, they’re expensive to run and new ones don’t cost that much anyway. Computers however are full of parts that can be recycled in reconditioned machines—fans, cases, hard drives, CD/DVD drives, power supplies and monitors can all be re-used or re-purposed. Given the expense of sending them back to the manufacturer for disposal, you’re better off looking for people willing to recycle them for you. There is a recycler service provider pc819.com (link in Japanese). If you don’t speak or read Japanese, you might need to ask for someone to help you. With this service, not only the recycling is free but so is the shipping—as long as you use Kuroneko Yamatotakyubin to send it. They claim that they’ll also wipe all the data from your hard drive. Don’t be clever and remove everything of value first (RAM chips, power supply, hard drive etc.) or there is a good chance they’ll reject it—then you’ll end up paying for the shipping both ways. Another similar service is https://pc-farm.co.jp/ which follows the same process. An interesting aspect of their service is that you can send other things (like printers, etc., for free in the same box as the computer or other high-value item).

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http://www.pc819.com

Consumer Electronics Retailers

If you’re buying a new fridge, TV or washing machine, most retailers (Bic Camera, Yodobashi Camera, etc.) will dispose of your old one very cheaply or even free of charge. Don’t forget to mention it when you are purchasing the item—or before for a little extra negotiating power.

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‘Sodai Gomi’Oversized Garbage

This is the standard way that most people use to get rid of large items in Japan. You may need to plan up and need at least 1 week time to arrange everything. Every city (and ward) in Japan offers a service in which they collect large rubbish (sodai gomi). If you don’t speak or read Japanese, then your ward or city should at least have some information in English on their web site about this. Typically you have to call a number and explain what you want to throw out and tell them the size of the item. Based on this they will tell you how many ‘粗大ゴミ処理券’ (soudai gomi shori ken—stickers you attach to the item) you need to buy and when to put it out for collection. The stickers can be purchased from just about any convenience store. It’s a bit of a pain and sometimes can be expensive. If you don’t speak Japanese, they should have at least one person in the office who can speak some English to help you through. Also be aware that not all things can be put out with ‘sodai gomi’. For example, printers are OK, but computers are not. By law, the original manufacturers of the computer are responsible for its disposal. The original manufacturer might cost you 6,000 yen or more.

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Roaming Recycling Trucks (not really cheap)

You can’t be in Japan for longer than a few weeks before you notice the ‘kei-trucks’ driving around your neighborhood very slowly blaring out a recorded message exhorting you to bring out your appliances and have them take them away for free or even pay cash. Despite what the announcements claim, they’ll only do that if they can get a lot for selling it—so it basically has to be a brand new appliance! If it isn’t new, you’ll likely have to pay them a few thousand yen to get rid of it. The collectors actually call it a ‘disposal’ fee—which didn’t make a lot of sense when I used one of these guys to get rid of an old analog (it was still LCD) television. Despite saying he was going to ‘dispose’ of it for 4,000 yen, the guy insisted that I dig up the power supply and the remote control for him to take as well! I’ve seen programs on TV where they actually take these old TVs, pile them into containers and send them off to places like the Philippines or South America. This raises ethical issues as the disposal of these items is then offloaded to poorer countries less likely to have the resources to do it properly.

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