Japan's First Total Waste Management Company Makes Debut

Eco Loop Center, Japan's first private waste management company, was established in July 2004. The company sells recycled materials and processes and recycles industrial and household waste.

Kanagawa Prefecture and researchers from the private sector have conducted studies regarding waste management systems. The Environment Technology Center, a local non-profit organization, played a key role to compile the study results into a practical implementation plan, the "Eco Loop Project," which led to the launch of the Eco Loop Center as an business venture. The company has 19 shareholders, including major electronic manufacturers and a new company, "K.E.L.," established by six waste treatment companies in the prefecture.

In the Eco Loop Project, 500,000 tons of waste will be processed annually by three facilities: (a) an organic waste recycling center, which consists of an ethanol production plant, a fodder production plant, and a methane fermentation plant; (b) a power center that can generate 400,000 kilowatts of electricity, and (c) a clean processing center that recycles incombustible and plastic waste with a gasification furnace.

The Eco Loop Center plans to finish preliminary research by the end of fiscal 2004, and after approval by the authorities, it will start constructing facilities in 2008, and launch actual waste treatment operations in 2010. Yamakita Town, in the western part of the prefecture, is a possible site for the construction.



Posted: 2004/09/30 11:40:45 AM
Japanese version