Have you ever thought about where your trash travels after it's tossed into a basket then whisked away by the garbage truck that shows up like clockwork every week?

If not, now's the time to think, says Japanese comic Shuichi Takizawa.

Though he may not be a household name, Takizawa, who rides around the residential roads of Tokyo collecting trash when he's not doing standup, deserves a listen even when he's not on stage.

"We're drowning in our own garbage. It's horrifying to see how much stuff people throw away every day. Spoiled food, broken appliances, and a lot of pornography," Takizawa says in a recent interview with Kyodo News.

"There's not enough land in our country to bury all the trash. Experts say in 50 years the Chubo (Central Breakwater landfill sites in Tokyo Bay) will be filled to capacity. Then what? No one knows," he says.

"Gomidashi" (the Japanese term for waste disposal) is a universal topic. We can all relate, on some level, to Takizawa's tweets (@takizawa0914) about the common recycling mistakes we make, sometimes with the best of intentions.

Juggling two careers in seemingly unrelated fields, Takizawa is calling for the public to embrace environmentally friendly habits as a way of life, and he does it by doing what he does best -- being enthusiastic and funny.

The 42-year-old, a member of a manzai comedy duo called the Machine Guns, became a social media celebrity overnight when Hiroiki Ariyoshi, one of the most famous TV personalities in Japan, began retweeting his day-in-the-life-of-a-garbage-collector tweets.

Little did Takizawa know when he started his showbiz career 20 years ago that his breakthrough would come as a green campaigner and bestselling author, and that it would be by wading through garbage that he would find his path to the limelight.

His book "Kono gomi wa shuushuu dekimasen" (We can't collect this garbage), based on his tweets, sold out on Amazon on the day of its publication in September.

"I didn't become a garbage man hoping for more job offers (as a comedian) but I've been guided on my unique career path and now I smell opportunity," he says.

Despite the filth, danger and smell that come with the job, Takizawa says being a bin man has brought out his best qualities by teaching him that his day-to-day actions, along with everyone else's, have an impact on the planet.

Like a majority of the comedians who belong to his talent agency, Takizawa needs a second job to make ends meet. Convenience stores, karaoke boxes, call centers, building security services and construction companies are among the popular side gigs.

"Of course you have to be skilled to make a living as a comedian, but you also have to be very lucky. There are tons of funny guys out there who live in the shadows," he says.

Takizawa considers his own side hustle -- as an on-call substitute for absent frontline sanitation workers -- to be his core business, since it pays better. "If asked, I'd have to say I'm a sanitation employee who does comedy on the side, not vice versa."

(Takizawa, left, and his comedy duo partner Ryo Nishihori)
[Photo courtesy of Machine Guns]

Other than Fridays when he has a radio recording session, Takizawa gets up at the crack of dawn to witness the consequences of human behavior in a material culture as he hauls away a never-ending supply of rubbish.

On a regular day he wakes up at 5:00 a.m. and by 6:30 a.m. he is at his worksite, where he begins his check-in with a mandatory breathalyzer test -- the reason he stays away from the booze.

The early riser has battled wasps, rats, cockroaches, caterpillars and maggots that add to the workplace drama, but it is humans and their insensitivity towards sustainability that scares him most, he says.

"You can tell a lot about a person and a neighborhood by looking at their dumpster. Clean trash can? You're probably a clean person. Yes, we judge you by your can," he says.

When bags rip open, you get a peek inside someone's life, he says, but it's not all buried treasure. The men in blue don't need to hack your computer or break into your house to tell your gender, what you eat, what you smoke, what you read, and more.

Takizawa is surprised at the amount of personal information thrown away without shredding -- phone bills, bank statements, tax documents, medical records -- he even wrote a suspense fiction about a psychopath who stalks a woman and goes through her trash.

"I learn something new every day," he says. "I was unemployed and broke when I first started so I feel fortunate to have a job. I actually like being a garbage man now. I might be doing this forever."

Though he does not downplay the fatigue the job entails -- flexing, squatting, heavy lifting and running -- Takizawa has succeeded in turning an everyday routine into an adventure, at times even feeling like a detective unearthing clues from discarded histories.

Combustible trash collecting is done by a three-man crew: one driver and two collectors. Takizawa is the guy working behind the rear-loader, throwing bags into the rotating drum that compacts and grinds the waste.

"Teamwork is key. When you team up with the right guys, and most of them I meet for the first time that day, you get in the zone. You feel the oneness. You feel the groove. When that happens I feel like I could be trash-picking all day long," he laughs.

All joking aside, Takizawa worries that we are creating more waste than reducing it and not doing enough to save our resources for future generations in Japan, one of the most wasteful countries in the world.

According to Environment Ministry data, Japan generated 43.17 million tons of general waste in fiscal 2016, enough to fill the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome 116 times and working out at about 925 grams per person per day.

The country's obsession with packaging and vending machines contributes to the problem, Takizawa says. He also knows as a former izakaya pub waiter about the amount of edible food thrown out every day. Mindless consumption is another bugbear.

"When you walk into a 100 yen store (dollar store) you end up buying needless things because everything is cheap. Don't buy it if you don't need it or you're going to eventually dispose of it. You can take matters into your own hands. You can make sure it stays out of the landfill."

Compared to six years ago when he was a rookie in the so-called dirty business, Takizawa says there is more public awareness of recycling and reuse today. He notices more green action -- rinsed-out bottles, removed bottle caps, torn-off labels.

If you're a foreigner living in Japan and don't read Japanese, he suggests you visit your local authority for an English gomidashi booklet that tells you the do's and don'ts of recycling.

"Most people don't start thinking about the future of waste management until they're older. Young adults have other interests but I want them to know this is about them too. It's where their taxes go," he says.

(File photo of garbage truck in Japan)

Being a father of two -- a 5-year-old and 2-year-old -- Takizawa knows keeping your home junk-free is no easy task. But he also knows the direct link between clutter and cash.

"There's an obvious difference in the dumpster of a wealthy neighborhood and a poor neighborhood. Lower incomes families tend to throw away large amounts of trash at once, I mean like catastrophic levels," he says.

"I don't see too many cigarette butts in rich communities but get a lot from the non-rich, whose top trash items also include manga, alcoholic drink containers and energy drink bottles. It shows how addiction to little things can result in big spending."

Tackling the waste problem involves more awareness and education, Takizawa says.

Some don'ts: leaving junk out on the curb when your moving day doesn't coincide with your trash days. Going through someone else's trash. Dumpster diving, despite the temptation to scavenge for still usable items.

"When I know for sure it's intentional littering or illegal dumping, I'll slap on a sticker and leave the trash behind," he says, referring to the red sticker of shame that labels you a garbage offender for all your neighbors to see.

Trash pickup is serious business. But Takizawa intends to keep his sense of humor, because being funny is what he's paid to do as a comedian. He sometimes dreams of adding to his resume -- novelist, children's story writer, beach cleaner, singer -- but once a garbage man, always a garbage man.

"We know your darkest secrets. We've seen the evidence. When I see a trove of X-rated magazines and videos, my guess is this guy is about to move in with a new girlfriend. When I see food waste wrapped in newspaper I know there's a granny in the house. This is all trash talk," he says.

"If I had chosen to work at a convenience store, I'm sure I would've found fun and humor as a cashier. It doesn't matter what you do. There's always something to laugh about."