Tearing Down The House

Though I have observed this countless times, it always strikes me as wasteful and depressing. When homes are torn down in Japan, no attempt to recycle nor even to separate the differing materials is made. Hydraulic claws just rip the structure apart and deposit what does not fall out into huge bags for disposal. Laborers use shovels and their hands to pick up the pieces that do not make it into the bags. Broken wood, glass from windows, twisted aluminum window frames, wiring, porcelain from the toilet, it all goes into the same bags. That’s the wasteful part.

Atop a small hill near my apartment sat an old but well kept bungalow with a small but nice garden. I was shocked to see it being torn down as it looked as if the owner just left for work that very morning. Once they got through the wall, the personal belongings of the most recent occupants could be seen. Needing a table for my apartment, I was disappointed to see the one in this house go into the trash heap. The cupboards and cabinets with still filled with dishes. Wall hangings still upon the walls. Chests of drawers, everything one would to expect to find in a lived in house; all prey for the hydraulic claw.