By AI YOSHIDA

In Sapporo, collection of domestic plastic wastes started in July, 2000. After three months the city officials estimated that collection volume was about 60 percent of the planned volume, seemingly satisfactory for a metropolis of 1,800,000 people. However, this is not so for the public. The citizens in Sapporo are puzzled with the classification.

The city officials judge that the people are too cautious with soiled containers. But this is not really so difficult because if you clean them they become recyclables, while if oil and paste won't come off, they are classified "noncombustible. " According to the Sapporo City Bulletin the containers for mayonnaise, natto and miso are classified as the former, and those for toothpaste and handicraft glue as the latter, but if you can wash them clean, all can be "resources. "

Everyone has a basic obligation to classify their garbage. I have investigated by questionnaire whether the students of Sapporo University have an awareness of this matter. The first- and second-year students in the Faculty of Foreign Language were focused on, and opinions from about 220 students were obtained. The findings were as follows.

In �@ whether one throws out the garbage oneself ( about 52 % ) or leaves it for others to do ( about 48 % ) the difference was to be kept in mind in answering the rest of the questionnaire.

In �A there were various reasons why students answered "No " ( about 25 %) to whether they knew how garbage was classified and collected. Though there is no way to blame some who come to school from outside Sapporo, it's disappointing that other students knew nothing about collection because they depend on their parents, manager or owner of their apartments and answered that they were not interested in garbage collection.

In �B, Students who are too lazy to separate garbage ( about 3 % ) are not worth considering, but among the about 89 % of students who answered they do classify garbage, about 85 % said they classify the garbage perfectly into five types ( combustible, noncombustible, resource garbage include plastic, large-size garbage ). It is fine that they have such serious consciousness of plastic classification.

In another question, �C whether students obeyed the times for putting out garbage or not, we find that about 31 % of students answered "No, " and some of them ( about 80 % ) put out garbage on the previous night. Even if classification is satisfactory, if the garbage is put out irregularly, the garbage collectors are annoyed by garbage damaged by crows or under new snow.

Then, In �D and �E we discover the students' interest in how to put out the garbage, and in cutting down on the garbage. In �D, in order of frequency the answers were, "1, Wash the container, " "2, Divide correctly, " "3, Strain water off the garbage, " and "4, Separate plastic bottles and their caps. " In �E, there were a lot of opinions ; "1, Promote recycling, " "2, Refuse extra wrapping " and "3, Don't buy too many things. " Concretely, our hopes for the future are greatly increased by answers citing "Recycling " and "Buying goods with refillable containers. "

In �F, there were the opinions that there should be improvement in directions on how to divide garbage, the need for someone to be in charged of the garbage collection point, and that the city should push more strongly the citizens into dividing garbage.

As a result, the city has give out a lot of information about dividing garbage, and as you can see in graph �A, students answering that they do not know how ( about 25 % ) is unexpectedly low. But we should like it to be 0 %. Although the city officials consider that all the citizens know how to divide garbage, from this questionnaire, we are able to judge that to be wrong. Another surprise is that the both students living by themselves and those living with their families have almost the same perception. We are perhaps lacking in education by the elementary schools and the lead of the neighborhood association, and so on. Compared with recycling in Nagoya or Germany, it is easy for us in Sapporo to learn how to divide plastic garbage. The college student is no longer a child, and therefore he/she must think about environmental pollution, volunteer recycling as one who has responsibility. Students, the young, have charge of the future. That is why we, students at Sapporo University, should also be in the forefront of measures for the division of plastic garbage.

Items

�@Are you living by yourself?

�ADo you know how to classify the garbage in Sapporo?

( revision in July. 2000. )

�BDo you classify the garbage?

�CDo you put out the garbage at the fixed day and time?

�DWhat do you pay attention when you put out the garbage?

�EWhat do you do to cut down on the garbage?

�FDo you have any questions beside these?