Lately, I’ve been reading travelers’ tales about the difficulty in locating someplace to drop-off trash and recycling while visiting Japan. So, I found this short piece by writer and long-time Japan resident Craig Mod on our cultural impulse to immediately discard the trash we generate illuminating. In Japan, there are few rubbish bins, which encourages individuals to take responsibility for their waste instead of abandoning it. Perhaps owning your garbage promotes a healthier relationship with consumption? “This obsession with the immediate ‘unburdening’ of a thing you created is common in non-Japanese contexts, but I posit: The Japanese way is the correct way. Be an adult. Own your garbage. Garbage responsibility is something we’ve long since abdicated not only to faceless cans on street corners (or just all over the street, as seems to be the case in Manhattan or Paris), but also faceless developing countries around the world.”