Japan Ministry Announces Basic Plan for Sound Material-Cycle Society

Japan's Ministry of the Environment released its Basic Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society on March 14, 2003. The plan aims at limiting natural resource consumption and realizing proper waste recycling and disposal systems. It sets national goals of reducing waste by half and boosting resource productivity (GDP divided by natural resource inputs) by 40 percent.

The numerical targets of the plan, running through fiscal 2010, are to reduce per capita daily waste generation by 20 percent compared to fiscal 2000, and to halve the amount of waste going to landfills, from 56 million tonnes in 2000 to 28 million tonnes, by the reuse and recycling of products across the country.

As a part of measures to promote business activities in a sound material-cycle society, the ministry will also encourage companies and public bodies to systematically implement green purchasing, and to double the market size and employment scale of sound material-cycle businesses.



Posted: 2003/05/04 11:06:40 AM
Japanese version