PROPER WASTE

DISPOSAL IN
JAPAN
In the 1990s, the goal of reducing waste produced began to receive attention. In
1991, the Waste Management Law was again revised to add generation reduction
as a national objective. Legislation that followed sought to reduce waste
produced during manufacturing and promote recycling.[1] In 2000, the Basic Act
for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society or Basic Recycling Act was
established, which laid out a framework that emphasized reduction in waste
generation and recycling, and set numerical targets to measure progress

Garbage
collection

In Japan, public trash cans are quite

rare, having been removed from
Incineration
public spaces in the aftermath of the
1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack.
Usually, trash produced outside is
brought home and sorted with
household trash before
collection.Trash is sorted based on
regulations that vary by municipality
into as many as thirty different
categories.
Incineration is the most widely
used waste disposal method in
Japan, and is attractive because
of its ability to reduce the volume
of trash in a country mostly
occupied by mountains or people.
In 2017, there were about 1,200
incineration facilities in Japan. In
2014, 358 of these plants also
generated electricity. It is
therefore important to note that
in Japan, incineration and
thermal recycling or energy
recovery, where the garbage

Recycling burned produces energy, are not

synonymous

Every week, thousands

of plastic crates are
placed along the streets
of Tokyo to collect
recyclable materials. In
offices, supermarkets,
train stations and other
facilities throughout the
capital, recyclable
bottles, cans and other
materials are
meticulously separated
and placed in the
appropriate receptacles
Landfill
Harmful waste such as waste containing
heavy metal and PCBs has the potential to
adversely affect health and the environment,
and must be disposed of at isolated landfill
sites. Non-harmful waste that has the
potential to pollute public water areas and
underground water, or may affect the
environment because of gas, odor and/or
pests must be disposed of at controlled
landfill sites. Plastic waste, rubber debris,
metal debris, glass, ceramics and bricks that
has little potential to cause environmental
pollution can be disposed of at inert landfill
sites.

Backfilling
Backfilling or land reclamation is the process of filling in
the sea with processed trash to create land that can be
developed. In Tokyo, this has taken place since the 1920s
and continues today. One contemporary example is the
Central Breakwater, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. In
2014, 21 million tons of garbage were put towards this
purpose