in Rural Japan Extreme Recycling

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1 em feature by Richard and Yoko Crume Richard V. Crume works as an environmental engineer and teaches a college course on air pollution characterization and control. Yoko S. Crume, Ph.D., is a social work professor, specializing in services for an aging society. thecrumes@me.com. Extreme Recycling in Rural Japan Imagine a community where residents voluntarily separate their household wastes into 24 discrete categories for recycling, where recycling centers are located in almost every neighborhood, and where local coordinators actively promote recycling and waste minimization. It s happening now in Oizumi, a small rural community about 75 miles (120 km) northwest of Tokyo, Japan. A limited number of burnable wastes are transported to regional municipal waste incinerators. 8 em august 2011 awma.org

2 A dirty bottle, mere trash a cleaned bottle, a resource for the future! >> Japanese recycling slogan Oizumi, like many municipalities throughout the Japanese Islands, has few disposal options. With a population of about 5,000, plus many weekend vacationers from Tokyo who maintain second homes in the area, Oizumi residents generate a variety of household wastes glass and plastic bottles, newspapers and magazines, aerosol cans, cooking oil, and small appliance batteries, to name a few. Municipal landfills are impractical in this picturesque community nestled among several of Japan s highest mountain ranges. For Oizumi residents, community recycling requires close attention to detailed municipal guidelines and a willingness to investigate and categorize every single piece of household trash (see Table 1). Since rural Japanese communities like Oizumi typically do not offer curbside garbage and recycling collection services, households must haul their wastes to neighborhood collection centers for subsequent transport to regional recycling or municipal waste incineration operations. The household waste management program in Oizumi is similar to waste reduction and reuse efforts in cities across Japan, including large metropolitan areas like Tokyo. With limited space available for landfilling, recycling has become a top priority for Japan, while incineration remains the preferred option for non-recyclables. Japanese household wastes are classified into two broad categories: Recyclable wastes suitable for reprocessing into consumer products, construction materials, and other manufactured goods. Non-recyclable wastes that cannot be recycled and must be sent to a municipal waste incinerator or occasionally a landfill. An aim of Japan s nationwide recycling program is to completely eliminate the need for landfills, which currently process just 2.5% of all municipal wastes. It s the Law in Japan The Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Based Society sets the framework for many of Japan s recycling and waste disposal initiatives. Enacted in 2000, the Basic Law outlines the goals of reducing the amount of wastes generated, reusing waste materials to conserve natural resources, and recycling wastes into useful products Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, the 3Rs of waste management. Table 1. Household waste recycling categories for Oizumi, Japan. Recyclable 1 Cooking oil Cotton fabric (100%) Cans Aluminium Steel Glass Brown Clear Other colors Paper Cardboard Newspaper Magazines Milk cartons Mixed paper Plastic Styrene foam containers Water bottles Other plastic containers Non-Recyclable Suitable for incineration Well-drained kitchen cooking wastes, leather, non-cotton fabrics, and rubber Larger incinerable items easily handled by one person Special handling and processing Fluorescent lights Hazardous items such as cigarette lighters and spray cans Oversized items Small appliance batteries Thermometers and other mercurycontaining items Suitable for landfill All other household wastes not falling into the above categories A. Items that fit into an authorized bag B. Larger items still easily handled by one person Notes: 1 Recyclable materials make up about 30% by weight of Oizumi s household wastes. Source: General Waste Disposal Plan, Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, 2008, (Japanese). awma.org august 2011 em 9

3 Figure 1. Per capita household waste generation for selected industrialized countries. Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Environmental Data, Compendium , dataoecd/22/58/ pdf. Under the Basic Law, businesses are responsible for the products they manufacture until recycled, for reducing packaging and other materials that would be discarded as wastes, and for labelling recyclable materials to facilitate consumer sorting into categories for subsequent recycling. Citizens, as the primary generators of household wastes, are responsible for reducing the volume of wastes and for participating in community recycling programs. Other key legislation includes: (1) the Container and Packaging Recycling Law, which requires manufacturers to be responsible for costs associated with collecting and recycling discarded wastes; and (2) the Home Appliance Recycling Law, which requires manufacturers and importers to take back for recycling their own refrigerators and freezers, washing and drying machines, wall air conditioning units, and televisions when consumers purchase new units. More than 18 million appliances were returned to manufacturers in In this densely populated country where competition is keen for scarce land resources, the Japanese have reached the point where recycling and waste incineration are the only two viable options for large-scale waste management. And since municipal waste incineration plants meeting the strict environmental standards demanded by the public are expensive to build and operate, and transporting wastes to incinerators can also be expensive, the alternative of recycling is very attractive. This is especially so now as Japanese concern over greenhouse gases from combustion sources like waste incinerators has intensified. Not only are the Japanese recycling at a feverish pace, they are also cutting back on the amount of waste generated in the first place, resulting in a per capita household waste generation rate of approximately 1.6 lb/day (0.73 kg/day) that ranks among the lowest of industrialized nations (see Figure 1). A key factor in reducing waste has been efforts by manufacturers to minimize packaging for grocery store items and various consumer products. Table 2 illustrates the waste composition similarities between two economic powerhouses: Japan and the United States. However, waste composition comparisons between countries are often problematic due to inconsistencies in reporting. For example, reporting may address household wastes or alternatively the broader category of municipal wastes, weight or alternatively volume of waste, and wastes collected or alternatively wastes recycled. Additionally, yard wastes and scrap wood may or may not be included in waste reporting, and a Table 2. Comparison of waste categories for Japan and the United States. Japan Household Waste Paper 37% Kitchen waste 29% Plastics 11% Garden waste 5% Glass 5% Metals 5% Other 8% U.S. Municipal Waste Paper 28% Food scraps 14% Plastics 12% Yard trimmings 14% Glass 5% Metals 9% Rubber, leather, and textiles 8% Wood 7% Other 4% Source: United Nations Environment Programme, GRID-Arendal Center, Japanese Household Waste Composition, 2006, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2009, percentages based on weight. 10 em august 2011 awma.org

4 rigorous waste minimization program may alter the proportion of reported waste materials. Despite these inconsistencies, industrialized nations generally have a similar mix of paper, plastics, metals, and glass, and organic matter in their household or municipal wastes. Neighborhood Coordinators Ensure Success The appointment of volunteer recycling coordinators at the neighborhood level helps explain Oizumi s success. Although a small, rural community, Oizumi has 28 recycling coordinators, each responsible for a neighborhood collection site. These coordinators train residents on recycling procedures and help ensure that wastes are sorted correctly. Oizumi residents who choose to join their neighborhood recycling group assist with the maintenance of collection sites, keeping these areas neat and tidy. While participating in a recycling group is optional, many residents find doing so is easier than the alternative of hauling their wastes to the centralized collection point located behind the town municipal government building. The neighborhood recycling coordinators represent a key link in the community s chain-of-custody approach for recycling, where the responsibility for handling wastes is passed from households to recycling coordinators to transport contractors to regional recycling centers. A full-time Oizumi recycling manager helps guarantee that waste recycling responsibilities are clearly delineated and taken seriously by everyone involved, including new residents, who receive recycling instructions when first registering their households with the municipal government. Wastes that cannot be recycled are sent to regional incinerators, which often provide heat for industrial manufacturing uses or residential heating. In Oizumi, residents are required to place combustible wastes in uniform-size translucent bags bearing the household s name. If a recyclable item such as a bottle or can is discovered during visual inspection of the bags, the household is reminded to sort its wastes more carefully next time. By carefully separating recyclable from incinerable wastes, by installing stringent pollution controls on incineration plants, and by shutting down some of the most polluting incinerators, Japan has achieved a 98% reduction in harmful dioxin air pollution emissions from its municipal waste incinerators. There is no recycling or waste disposal fee for Oizumi households, except for the disposal of large, bulky items like refrigerators. By imposing a disposal fee for these items, town managers reason that many households will try to avoid the fee by continuing to use their large appliances as long as possible, thereby reducing the number of large household items that must be disposed of. Residents can also avoid paying the disposal fee by trading in their old appliances when buying new ones. Approximately 75% of Japanese municipalities impose some type of waste collection or disposal fee, and this percentage is growing. (One drawback to the disposal fee concept is that it discourages homeowners from replacing their old, inefficient appliances with newer, energy-efficient models.) As with many Japanese towns, Oizumi does not have a separate yard waste collection program. Instead, Oizumi offers subsidies for compost bins, which can be used for both yard and food wastes. (The town also offers subsidies for photovoltaic awma.org august 2011 em 11

5 Residents are encouraged to recycle. Neighborhood recycling bins make this task easier and are located throughout the community. Inset: Translucent trash bags bound for the incinerator are labeled with the household name and inspected before incineration. Garbage truck operators undergo weeks of training. solar panels.) The open burning of yard wastes, although not encouraged, is often practiced. Lessons Learned from Japan s Experience Can other countries learn from Japan s recycling success? Obviously, there are cultural differences among countries that affect how waste disposal options are perceived and implemented. Also, Japan s extensive recycling laws that compel its manufacturers and citizens to take action would be a hard sell in many industrialized countries. Perhaps the most important lesson is one of economics when alternatives to recycling become too expensive, a nationwide recycling campaign involving businesses, municipalities, and households becomes much more attractive. In many countries, the practicality of landfilling is declining as existing sites fill up, as communities are reluctant to approve new landfills, and as costs for waste transportation to remote landfills sites steadily increase. Also, concern has been building for a number of years over the costs and environmental impacts associated with groundwater contamination, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions from landfills, waste transporters, and municipal waste incinerators. While many of the details of Japan s recycling program are unique to that country, several of the program s underpinnings could be applied successfully elsewhere. These include: National legislation that mandates action. Corporate responsibility for minimizing and recovering wastes. Personal responsibility for waste reduction and separation. Organization at the neighborhood level. Fees for waste collection or disposal. Ultimately, the greatest challenge to implementing a rigorous Japanese-style recycling program may be to change the mindset of those consumers who have grown accustomed to the convenience of simply tossing their wastes into a trash can. em 12 em august 2011 awma.org