Waste Volume at Record Levels, But Recycling Improves

Japan's Ministry of the Environment recently released figures on the amount of waste discharged from households and offices in Japan, totaling 52,360,000 tonnes in fiscal 2000 (ending March 31, 2001), or an increase of 910,000 tonnes from the previous year. The amount of waste per capita per day increased by 18 grams, to 1,132 grams over the year. The waste from households accounted for about 66 percent of the total.

Intermediate processing, which includes incineration, crushing and sorting of waste, reduced the total destined for disposal by 36,480,000 tonnes. Incineration is most common form of intermediate processing in Japan. In fiscal 2000, 40,300,000 tonnes of waste were incinerated, or 77.4 percent of the total.

The amount of waste sent directly to landfills was 308,000 tonnes, or 5.9 percent of the total. On the other hand, 7,860,000 tonnes of waste were recycled. This figure includes the amount of recyclables collected by civic groups (see note), waste that was utilized without processing, and waste that was processed and recycled. This represents an improvement in recycling efforts compared to the previous year, when recycled waste totaled 7,030,000 tonnes.

Waste sent to landfills decreased from 10,870,000 to 10,510,000 tonnes over the year. As of the end of fiscal 2000, there were 2,077 landfills in Japan for household waste and they had an average of 12.2 years left before they are expected to reach full capacity. In the previous year the figure stood at 12.3.

Meanwhile, industrial waste in fiscal 2000 totaled about 460,000,000 tonnes, up 1.6 percent from the previous year. Of the total industrial waste, about 184,000,000 tonnes, or 45 percent, was recycled and about 54,000,000 tonnes, or 11 percent, was sent to landfills. Recycled industrial waste increased by 13,000,000 tonnes from the previous year, while the industrial waste sent to landfills decreased by 5,000,000 tonnes.

Existing landfill sites for industrial waste are expected to reach full capacity in 3.9 years in Japan overall, but in the Tokyo metropolitan area only 1.2 years are left.

As one can see from these figures the situation for industrial waste continues to be a tough problem in Japan.

Note:
Waste collection is actively promoted in Japan by civic groups, including residents' associations, parent-teacher associations, children's associations or other groups that collect such recyclables as newspapers, empty bottles and cans, and used clothes to sell to waste dealers. Profits they make from selling waste are used to operate their groups and are partly used to serve their communities. It is seen as an effective way to collect recyclables and, in most cases, subsidized by local governments.



Posted: 2003/03/10 10:29:57 AM
Japanese version