A town in **Japan** has reached the highest levels of recycling known: it separates waste into **45 categories**. This town is **Kamikatsu**, where there is no garbage collection as such.
The **1500 inhabitants** go to the landfill to patiently classify their disposables. The ultimate goal is to recycle everything.
## Waste in 45 categories: the challenge of this Japanese town
The categories range from **pillows to toothbrushes**, bottles (depending on the type of glass), different containers, metal objects, etc.
Located in the middle of the mountains, 530 kilometers southwest of **Tokyo**, Kamikatsu aims to **recycle everything**. The idea is to send nothing to incinerators by 2020.
Although the waste center employees are there to help, the work is essentially for the residents. They have to **wash and dry bags, packages, and containers** to **facilitate recycling**.
Some objects **require disassembly**. That’s why you can often see people with tools to extract pieces, or the workers at the sorting center collaborating to reduce the size of some other waste. The site has **can and plastic compressors**.
To help, a brochure from the town illustrated with a photo describing it as “**the most beautiful in Japan**” presents, in 16 double pages, a multitude of photographs and drawings accompanied by a **photo of the container or box to use**.
## Japan, a leader in recycling
Many municipalities in Japan **require waste sorting**, but generally in a small number of categories, such as plastic, aluminum, paper, among others. Most **household waste is incinerated**.
Kamikatsu did not stand out until it received an ultimatum: in the year 2000, the municipality was ordered to **close one of its two incinerators**, which did not comply with pollution standards.
“Then we said to ourselves: if we can’t burn here, let’s recycle,” explains a city official, **Midori Suga**. “It costs less than incineration.”
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