Since I have been in Japan I have seen numerous recycling bins such as what is shown above by roads, shops, and at other sporadic locations. In America I do not usually see so many recycling bins at so many locations so I was kind of surprised. I also do not know if this is only the case in the cities I went to or if there really are more recycling bins in Japan in general. They have many bins for every type of recycling including paper, plastic, aluminum, steel, and PET bottles (plastic bottles). From these observations I decided to do some research to see if Japan recycled as much as it seems. I found that Japan has passed many laws that promote recycling goods including old cars, home appliances, plastics, aluminum products, steel cans, concrete, wood, food, etc. I have also found that Japan is a model country for recycling as they have some really good rates of recycling for a variety of products. For example, Japan sends only 16% of its solid waste to landfills compared to America’s 70%. Also, Japan is known as one of the best countries in steel can recycling as they had the highest rate in the world in 2006 at 88.1% of cans recycled. Even though the recycling of steel cans was not regulated by law, 99% of cities still collected and recycled them. Since I am a proponent of recycling for the environment’s sake, I found this information to be quite intriguing. If you would like to know more information you can visit the link I put on the right side of the blog labeled Japan Recycling.