Pork Barrel Garbage Bags

Pork Barrel Garbage Bags

Last month someone from the city delivered to our door several packages of amber colored transparent plastic garbage bags along with a letter stating that the bags were the new official city garbage bags for both burnable and non-burnable refuse.  The letter explained that the new bags were supposed to be less harmful to the environment than the various bags currently in use and that starting in October everyone would be required to purchase and use the new bags.  

I was initially pleased with the idea of new bags because they were larger and better quality than the current bags we were using.  But then I went to the store and saw how much the new bags cost.  Each large bag, which is probably about 20-30 gallons, is forty yen, or about 35 cents.   The bags we were using before cost about a third of that, and they were bigger.  Somewhere in Japan sits the fat politician responsible for the legislation that brought these bags to my door and I am convinced that he either owns stock in or is otherwise financially connected to the company responsible for making the ‘environmentally friendly’ garbage bags, and I hope he chokes on his chopsticks.

More about the bags later...