The Garbage:
They're serious about garbage and I have to have 2 trashcans to prove it (and one of them even has two sections). One is for burnable plastic and paper, etc., another is for cans and bottles, and the third is for soda and other plastic bottles that can be recycled. Each has a different colored trash bag that I have to buy, which are all quite expensive. But, the price of the bags covers the cost of garbage pickup. There a certain days of the week or month when I put out my trash in the appropriate category/bag color. Burnables on M/W, bottles and cans every other Th., and plastics on the other Thursdays. I don't generate too much trash by myself, but this could be a real pain for a family...
So, the really bad news is that when you make people pay a lot to take care of garbage, they're much more likely to throw it somewhere that it doesn't belong, or just burn it in their own backyard. I see both all the time as I can look out from my balcony on any given day and see smoke rising from somewhere, and come across piles of litter here and there around the city. It's very surprising to me how much litter there is in Yukuhashi really, especially when a big city like Tokyo is 100% spotless.
They need some commercials like they used to show in the US when I was a kid. The crying Indian. Those made you feel so bad about littering that I still remember them well (and have never been a litterbug).