Disposing of furniture in Japan

Today, I helped a friend get rid some old furniture. Since this is the first time dealing with getting rid of something that cannot be thrown out with regular rubbish, I figured I'd write about it. In Japan, there two ways of doing getting rid of you old furniture or appliances, and depending on the method you choose, the costs will vary. The first method is to arrange to have it picked up by a service, though you will have to pay at least 2000 yen (at least, in the town I live in) to cover the pick up costs. The other method is go directly to a recycling plant to dispose of it, which was a significantly cheaper option - though you will need private transportation to get you there. In this case, we went with the cheaper option.

While the recycling plant was a bit of a drive away from our apartment (about 20 minutes one way), it wasn't that hard to get to. After inquiring around about how to kick off the process, we finally got started. We drove up to what I can only describe as a checkpoint, where we would fill out our details, and explain what we wanted to dispose of. The staff was kind enough to explain and show us a picture of where we needed to drive to - basically follow the yellow and white lines until we reached one of two gates, where we would drive inside. Because it was a hot day today, I had the windows down, but I quickly put the windows up after the smell of rubbish flooded the car. When we drove inside, there was only us and two more staff who came to examine what we wanted to dispose of. Admittedly, it did feel like one of those tropes where you go in to a warehouse to meet up with mobsters, so nobody can see what you are up to. After handing over what we wanted to get rid of, they guided us out of the warehouse and returned to the original checkpoint to make the payment for... around 300 yen. I was surprised it was that cheap to get of one piece of furniture. Admittedly this was a smaller piece of furniture, so the price may vary on the size and weight of what you want to get rid of, but it seems dropping it off directly at a recycling plant is cheaper compared to arranging for pick up. 

This will be useful for me at some point, as I have had some appliances and furniture handed to me, despite not wanting them in the first place - specifically one old, filthy toaster oven and an old fold-out chair. I eventually want to get rid of these, so this knowledge will be useful before I move out.