Welcome to Tokyo’s Gome Pit: a pop-up bar in a rubbish dump designed to make drinkers think about sustainability

A group of young Japanese snap selfies as they knock back a few drinks on a Friday night. But the backdrop to their photos is a mechanical claw stuffed with trash.

They have chosen one of the more unusual spots in Tokyo for an after-work tipple: a local waste facility and incinerator.

The pop-up bar – called Gomi (trash) Pit – is the initiative of local officials who are trying to promote their state-of-the-art facility and prod local residents to think about the waste they produce. It makes for a striking juxtaposition: on the upper floor of the facility in Musashino in western Tokyo, several dozen people sit at tables eating nibbles and sipping cocktails.

The glass windows in front of them look directly onto a deep pit where tons of garbage is piled for incineration. Every few minutes, an enormous crane descends to the bottom of the pit, then raises up gripping the detritus of daily life: half an Ikea bag, a tie, pieces of cushion foam, torn paper, and plastic bags of every description.

The claw opens to release and mix the trash – key to ensure the various components burn evenly in the incinerator – and the pieces dance down through the air, like the most unpleasant snow imaginable.