Recycling Specifics: Plastics, Cans, Bottles, Paper

Recycling specifics in Japan cover three household streams: plastic packaging, cans and glass and PET bottles, and paper.¹²³ Each stream follows ward or city rules, so the local sorting guide and calendar decide the exact categories, bags, and days.

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at your ward or city office recycling and garbage page.

Overview

This guide explains what goes in each stream, how to prepare items, and when each stream is collected. It covers post-consumer packaging with the プラ symbol, metal and glass containers, PET drink bottles, and household paper such as newspapers and cardboard.¹²⁴

What counts as recyclable here

The three streams in this article are plastic containers and packaging, cans and glass bottles plus PET bottles, and used paper.¹²³ Burnable garbage, non-burnable items, spray cans and batteries, and oversized waste sit outside this article and follow separate ward procedures.¹²

The national Containers and Packaging Recycling Law structures sorted collection by material, including glass containers, PET bottles, paper cartons, and other plastic and paper containers and packaging, with roles for consumers, municipalities, and businesses.⁵ Under the 2022 Plastic Resource Circulation Act, each municipality sets its own separation criteria for plastic product waste and informs residents, with no single national start date.⁶

Stream	Typical items	Mark to look for
Plastic packaging	Trays, cups, wrappers, pouches, lids, shopping bags	プラ178
Cans and glass	Drink and food cans, beverage and food bottles and jars	アルミ, スチール178
PET bottles	Drink, alcohol, vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, and non-oil dressing bottles	PET23
Paper	Newspapers, magazines, cardboard, milk cartons	紙124

The municipality axis

Ward and city rules override any general description in this article. Categories, bags, prep details, and weekdays differ across Tokyo wards, Yokohama, Osaka, and smaller municipalities.⁷²³

Shinjuku collects recyclable resources once per week, combustible garbage twice per week, and metal, ceramic, and glass twice per month by district, with set-out by 8:00 a.m. (as of 2026-03; confirm current figures with Shinjuku City).¹⁷ Osaka collects recyclable waste once per week and used paper and clothing once per week on separate days, and leaves mixed-category bags uncollected with a warning sticker (as of 2025-04-01).³⁴

Check the district calendar before the first set-out

Ward offices publish multilingual sorting guides, district calendars, and sorting apps. Download the guide for your address and confirm the weekday for each stream before putting anything out.⁷²³

The set-out decision follows the same order everywhere, even though the answers differ by city. The diagram below shows that order.

Plastic Packaging (Pura)

Plastic packaging recycling in Japan centers on the プラスチック容器包装 (purasuchikku yōki hōsō, "plastic containers and packaging") stream. It holds clean post-consumer packaging after the contents are used, not plastic products kept for long use.¹⁷⁵

What goes in plastics packaging

The core is packaging bearing the プラ identifying mark: bottles other than PET, cups, trays, packs, tubes, wrappers, pouches, lids, and shopping bags.¹⁷⁸ PET bottles are not classified as recyclable plastic and go to the separate PET stream.¹

Scope is expanding city by city. At Shinjuku, plastic containers and packaging plus 100 percent plastic products no more than 30 cm on any side and under 5 mm thick have been collected together as recyclable plastic since April 2024, including hangers, toothbrushes, sealed containers, rulers, washbasins, combs, buckets, and clear files.⁷⁹ At Yokohama, plastic resources covers items under 50 cm longest side made entirely of plastic, including プラ-marked packaging plus buckets, washbowls, hangers, and colanders.²

Edge plastics leave the stream. Items containing non-plastic materials, thick hard items such as cutting boards, sheets and strings 50 cm or more when spread out, small appliances, and home medical supplies go to burnable at Yokohama.² Containers with residual contents, extremely dirty items, items over 30 cm, items with built-in rechargeable batteries or that run on electricity, and items containing metal go to metal, ceramic, and glass or combustible at Shinjuku.¹⁷

How to prepare plastics: rinse and labels

Rinse lightly with water and drain before set-out. Items that are dirty are not recyclable resources, and items not emptied or difficult to clean go to combustible garbage.¹⁷ At Yokohama, residents rinse and wipe off food stains and dirt, and keep rechargeable batteries, lighters, food scraps, and contaminated items out of the bag.²

Keep batteries and lighters out of plastics bags

Small rechargeable batteries and lighters cause fires in collection vehicles and sorting plants. Tape battery terminals where instructed, and use the battery or lighter route, never the plastics bag.¹⁷²

Put plastics out in a transparent or semitransparent bag.¹⁷² Confirm with the ward guide whether labels must be removed for specific containers, since label rules vary by item and city.¹⁷

Collection rhythm for plastics

Shinjuku collects recyclable resources including recyclable plastic once per week at the collection site by 8:00 a.m. (as of 2026-03; confirm current figures with Shinjuku City).¹⁷ Yokohama collects plastic resources as its own sorting row, with the weekday set by the district calendar (as of 2026-06-10).² Osaka collects plastic resources as a separate stream from household waste and recyclable waste, with the weekday set by collection block (as of 2025-04-01).³

Municipalities are expanding product-plastics collection at different times under the 2022 Act. The Shinjuku combined collection from April 2024 is one dated example, not a national switch date.⁹⁶

Cans and Glass Bottles

The 缶・びん (kan / bin, "cans and glass bottles") stream covers metal and glass food and drink containers. Most municipalities separate metal from glass at set-out or at the station, while some collect them on the same day in the same section.¹⁷²³

Metal cans: aluminum and steel

The category is aluminum and steel cans for beverages and food. Residents rinse lightly with water and drain, including snack and tea cans at Shinjuku.¹⁷ Can marks read アルミ (arumi, "aluminum") and スチール (suchīru, "steel").⁸

Cans that cannot be cleaned, cans for non-food and drink uses, large drums and kegs, and paint cans are not recyclable cans. They go to metal, ceramic, and glass or small metal items depending on the city.¹⁷²

Aluminum handling changes at municipal boundaries. Shinjuku collects aluminum and steel beverage and food cans together as cans.¹⁷ Marugame instructs residents to separate steel and aluminum at set-out.¹⁰ Check the local page rather than carrying a rule from a previous address.

Glass bottles: rinse and by-color splits

At Shinjuku, recyclable bottles cover beverages, food, cosmetics, and oral medicines.¹⁷ At Yokohama, recyclable cans and glass are limited to food or drink containers, and cosmetic and medicine bottles except oral medicines go to non-burnable.² Confirm which scope the local guide uses before sorting cosmetics and medicine bottles.

Preparation is consistent. Take off caps, rinse lightly with water, shake off water, and place bottles in a see-through bag or the station collection bin or net.¹⁷ Bottles that cannot be cleaned, broken bottles, medication bottles besides oral-medicine bottles, light bulbs, fluorescent lights, plate glass, cups, heat-resistant glass, and ceramics are not recyclable bottles.¹⁷²

Some wards sort glass by color

Some municipalities ask residents to sort glass bottles by color, such as clear, brown, and green, while many do not. Yokohama groups cans, glass bottles, and PET bottles in one section without a by-color split, and Marugame instructs separate-by-color placement.²¹⁰⁸

How cans and glass are collected

Set-out shapes differ. Shinjuku lists bottles, cans, and PET as distinct bullets under weekly recyclables, with yellow containers for bottles, blue for cans, and blue nets for PET at sites that use containers.⁷ Yokohama lists cans, glass bottles, and PET bottles together in one row.² Osaka lists empty cans, glass bottles, and PET together under weekly recyclable waste, with spray cans and gas canisters in a separate bag.³

Set out in a transparent or semitransparent bag by 8:00 a.m. on the recyclables day.¹⁷² Osaka asks residents to rinse empty cans, glass bottles, and PET bottles with water and to crush cans and PET bottles where possible.³

PET Bottles

ペットボトル (petto botoru, "PET bottles") are drink bottles bearing the PET identifying mark. They form a separate stream from other plastics in the typical municipal pattern.¹²³

How PET differs from other plastics

PET covers bottles for drinks, alcohol, vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, and non-oil dressing-type condiments that bear the PET mark.²³ Other plastic bottles without the mark are non-burnable or recyclable plastic depending on the city.¹⁰ The Containers and Packaging Recycling Law treats PET bottles for drinks and soy sauce as a distinct sorted stream from other plastic containers and packaging.⁵

PET bottles that held oil and items whose contents cannot be cleaned by rinsing are excluded from PET collection at Shinjuku.¹ When the bottle has no PET mark or the residue will not rinse out, check the ward guide for the burnable or non-burnable destination.¹²

How to prepare PET bottles: caps, labels, rinse

Remove caps and labels, rinse lightly with water, and flatten or crush. Caps and labels go to recyclable plastic at Shinjuku and Osaka.¹⁷³ Yokohama and Osaka state the same rinse rule for PET alongside cans and glass.²³

The PET symbol is a three-arrow triangle with 1 and sometimes PET underneath.⁸ Municipal guides confirm the mark exists and governs the category, so the symbol on the bottle decides the stream.¹²³

Collection rhythm for PET bottles

PET stays separate from other plastics in the typical pattern. Shinjuku states PET bottles are not recyclable plastic and gives them their own bullet, while Yokohama keeps PET in the cans, glass, and PET row distinct from the plastic-resources row.¹²

Shinjuku collects PET weekly as part of recyclables (as of 2026-03; confirm current figures with Shinjuku City).¹⁷ Osaka collects recyclable waste including PET once per week, except in areas in the community PET Bottle Recycling Project which follow project rules (as of 2025-04-01).³ At container sites, Shinjuku directs PET into blue nets, separate from yellow bottle containers and blue can containers.⁷

Paper

Household paper recycling centers on 古紙 (koshi, "used paper"): newspapers, magazines, cardboard, and milk cartons, plus other clean paper the ward accepts. What counts as recyclable paper versus burnable paper varies by municipality.¹⁷²⁴

What counts as recyclable paper

Recyclable paper is newspapers, magazines and books, miscellaneous paper, cardboard, and paper cartons for food and beverages including milk cartons.¹⁷²⁴ Yokohama asks residents to separate newspapers, magazines, cardboard, and paper cartons into separate piles and to put other paper in a paper bag.² Osaka separates used paper and clothing into numbered subcategories: newspapers and inserts, cardboard, cartons, magazines, and miscellaneous papers.⁴

The boundary is strict. Excluded from recyclable paper are resin or aluminum-coated paper, ice-cream cups, instant-noodle lids, liquor cartons, waterproof paper cups, carbon paper, smelly paper such as detergent and incense boxes, sublimation transfer sheets, photo prints and inkjet photo paper, foam paper, pressure-bonded postcards, thermal paper, oiled paper, stickers, shredder scraps, food-stained paper such as pizza and cake boxes, and tissue and sanitary paper.¹⁷⁴

Paper type	Set-out	Notes
Newspapers, magazines, books	Bundle by type with string	Fold newspapers to A4 where instructed17
Cardboard	Fold flat, peel tape, tie	Break down to the city size limit248
Milk and drink cartons	Rinse, dry, bundle	Wash and dry before bundling172
Miscellaneous paper	Paper bag or between magazines	Tie the top so contents stay in172

How to bundle paper: twine and paper bags

Bind by type with string. Fold newspapers to A4 where instructed, fold cardboard flat, peel off tape and delivery slips, and wash and dry milk cartons.¹⁷²⁴ Put miscellaneous paper in a paper bag or tuck it between magazines or books, then close the bag with string so contents do not spill.¹⁷²

Remove metal fasteners to recyclable waste and plastic fasteners to plastic recyclables at Osaka.⁴ Keep bundles dry, since wet paper loses its recyclable status in most ward rules.¹⁷⁴

Collection rhythm for paper

Shinjuku collects recyclable paper weekly as part of recyclables, and encourages group collection by registered neighborhood groups as an alternative (as of 2026-03; confirm current figures with Shinjuku City).¹⁷ Osaka collects used paper and clothing once per week, and routes large volumes from moving through a recycling provider rather than the weekly set-out (as of 2025-04-01).⁴ Yokohama lists used paper as its own row, with the weekday set by the district calendar (as of 2026-06-10).²

Paper collection proceeds on rainy days at Shinjuku and Osaka.⁷⁴ Confirm the local calendar for the weekday and for any group-collection alternative in the neighborhood.¹⁷²

Good to know

Food-soiled plastic goes to burnable in most wards

Dirty, unemptied, or hard-to-clean plastics are excluded from recyclable plastic at Shinjuku and Yokohama.¹⁷² Rinse containers right after use, since dried residue takes far longer to clean and often fails the rinse test. Soiled paper follows the same logic and leaves the recyclable paper stream.¹⁷⁴

Caps and labels do not stay on PET bottles

Shinjuku and Osaka direct PET caps and labels to recyclable plastic.¹⁷³ Peel the label at the perforation, twist off the cap, and sort the three parts into two streams. Collection sites that use containers keep PET in blue nets apart from bottle and can containers.⁷

Glass color splits and aluminum splits change at ward boundaries

Shinjuku combines aluminum and steel while Marugame separates them, and Yokohama groups cans, glass, and PET while Marugame sorts glass by color.¹²¹⁰ A move across town can change the answer for the same can or bottle. Read the new ward page before assuming the old habit still applies.

Wet or greasy paper stops being recyclable paper

Food-stained, oiled, waterproof, and sanitary papers are listed as combustible or non-applicable at Shinjuku and Osaka even when the base material is paper.¹⁷⁴ Greasy pizza boxes, used tissues, and coated cups go to burnable. Keep recyclable bundles dry through collection morning.

When the symbol is missing, check the ward guide before guessing

The プラ and PET marks govern the plastics versus PET split, but unmarked, composite, oversized, battery-containing, and medical plastics have city-specific destinations.¹²⁵ Yokohama and Shinjuku both route edge plastics to burnable or metal, ceramic, and glass by rule.¹² The ward sorting dictionary or app answers faster than guessing and risking a rejected bag.⁷²

See also

• Foreign-Resident Garbage Mistakes in Japan
• Designated Bags (Shitei Gomi-Bukuro) System
• Move-Out Procedures: Closing Utility Accounts
• Japan Trash Sorting Rules and Municipality Variation
• Garbage-Station Etiquette and the Wrong-Day Name-Tag
• Oversized Trash (Sodai Gomi) and the Prepayment Sticker

References

Footnotes

1. Shinjuku City. How to Separate and Dispose of Recyclables and Garbage (English PDF). https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/content/000259263.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷ ↩³⁸ ↩³⁹ ↩⁴⁰ ↩⁴¹ ↩⁴² ↩⁴³ ↩⁴⁴ ↩⁴⁵ ↩⁴⁶ ↩⁴⁷ ↩⁴⁸ ↩⁴⁹ ↩⁵⁰

2. City of Yokohama. Sorting and disposal procedures for garbage and recyclables (English, last updated 2026-06-10). https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/lang/residents/en/garbage/sortinganddisposal.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷ ↩³⁸ ↩³⁹ ↩⁴⁰ ↩⁴¹ ↩⁴²

3. City of Osaka, Environment Bureau. ABC of Waste Disposal Rules, Proper Waste Disposal and Precautions P5 (English, 2025 edition). https://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/kankyo/cmsfiles/contents/0000524/524768/P5_ABC2025_EN.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

4. City of Osaka, Environment Bureau. ABC of Waste Disposal Rules, Collection of Used Paper and Clothing P6 (English, 2025 edition). https://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/kankyo/cmsfiles/contents/0000524/524768/P6_ABC2025_EN.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

5. Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan. Law for the Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging (English overview). https://www.env.go.jp/en/laws/recycle/07.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Ministry of the Environment. Plastic Resource Circulation Act promotion page for municipalities (Japanese). https://plastic-circulation.env.go.jp/gov ↩ ↩²

7. Shinjuku City, Foreign Language Top Page. Living: Garbage and Recycling (English, 2026 living guide excerpt). https://www.foreign.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2026/03/6kurashi_e2026.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷ ↩³⁸ ↩³⁹ ↩⁴⁰ ↩⁴¹ ↩⁴² ↩⁴³ ↩⁴⁴

8. Japan Living Guide. How to Read Recycling Symbols on Products in Japan (2025-10-10) (limitation: resident-focused publisher, tier-4; use only for symbol shapes already confirmed by municipal guides). https://www.japanlivingguide.com/expatinfo/japaneseculture/recycle-symbols/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

9. Shinjuku City. Plastic separation change notice (English, April 2024 expansion). http://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/content/000378896.pdf ↩ ↩²

10. City of Marugame. Garbage Sorting Guide (English PDF). https://www.city.marugame.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/5961.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴