And they burn their garbage, turning thin-film plastics into fuel pretty much as cleanly as the stock used to make the plastic. I much prefer that to making a huge hill with poorly-compacted trash, covering with soil and claiming "problem solved".
Their usage of plastic is higher in some specific instances (omiyage, cookie or snack packages, and convenience stores come to mind), but equivalent to North America in others (standard meat comes in a shrink-wrapped styrofoam tray, vegetables/fruit come loose or a single layer of packaging, grocery stores charge for plastic bags). Despite the meme, I don't think their plastic usage is all that significantly higher outside a few specific instances.
