> why does Japan go through the effort to burn or recycle most of it's trash? Altruism? Responsibility? Sanity? The real question is why do other countries ju

> why does Japan go through the effort to burn or recycle most of it's trash? Altruism? Responsibility? Sanity? The real question is why do other countries just push the problem of their trash onto other poorer countries or destroy their own land with toxic trash heaps. Even if you have plenty of space to fill with garbage why wouldn't you want to keep it clean/unpolluted? No matter how much square footage my house has, I'm still going to put my trash in a bin and take it outside instead of throwing it on the carpet and sweeping it into a corner.