#1 nation is Japan

We're all expecting China and India to take over the world, and it doesn't look like the U.S. will be able to put up much of a fight. Already we're up to our ears in debt to China. But don't count out Japan, yet. Who can compete against them, for example, in the sorting of trash?
'When the city of Yokohama recently doubled the number of garbage categories to 10, it handed residents a 27-page booklet on how to sort their trash. Highlights included detailed instructions on 518 items. Lipstick goes into burnables; lipstick tubes, "after the contents have been used up," into "small metals" or plastics. Take out your tape measure before tossing a kettle: under 12 inches, it goes into small metals, but over that it goes into bulky refuse. Socks? If only one, it is burnable; a pair goes into used cloth, though only if the socks "are not torn, and the left and right sock match." Throw neckties into used cloth, but only after they have been "washed and dried."' More here.
Holy garbage. Can you imagine New Yorkers doing this? In Kamikatsu, Japan, their categories of trash number 44.