Japan Recycles: Forget about 3- Sorts, How about 10?

In smaller Japanese communities, trash sorting options can jump to more than 40, while major cities settle for about ten.

As part of a national drive to reduce waste and increase recycling, cities in Japan like Yokohama recently doubled the number of trash sorting categories to 10. New options include small metals, used cloth and much more. Smaller towns – Kamikatsu (population 2,200) in the moutains of Shikoku now have 44 categories. In land scarce Japan, up to 80% of garbage is incinerated so the extra sorts are worth the cost.

“Sorting trash is not necessarily more expensive than incineration,” explains HIdeki Kidoshshi, a garbage researcher at the Center for the Strategy of Emergence at the Japan Building Institute. “In Japan, sorting and recycling will make further progress.”

Yokohama has set a goal to reduce incineration by 30% in five years, while Kamikatsu proposes to eliminate garbage by 2020 – raising its recycling rate to 80% in the last four years. Each household now has a subsidized garbage disposal unit that recycles raw garbage into compost.

An informal group of inspectors has been formed in many cities to promote compliance. They drive around their neighborhoods, looking for mis-sorted trash, leaving such notes as: “Mr. So-and-So, Your practice of putting out garbage is wrong. Here’s how you can correct it.” Meanwhile, cities like Yokohama have given residents a 27-page manual on how to sort trash into proper categories such as: Handkerchief goes into cloth after being washed and dried; Frying pan goes into small metals, unless larger than 12 inches which directs it into bulky refuse; Hair Spray goes into spray can category instead of small metals.

At a 100-family apartment complex, mis-sorting is fairly easy to pinpoint since clear garbage bags with identification numbers are required. Compliance is almost perfect. While not everyone complies, sorting out the trash properly is regarded as proof that one is a grown-up, responsible citizen.

At its single Garbage Station where Kamikatsu residents take their trash, 44 bins collect everything from tofu containers to egg cartons, plastic bottle caps to disposable chopsticks, fluorescent tubes to futons.

Meanwhile in North America, additional sorts of garbage in places like Nova Scotia are sharply raising per capita diversion rates. The latest statistics show that Nova Scotia disposes 39% less waste than the Canadian average, with Halifax having the highest diversion rate of over 60%. With source separated organics, recycling and garbage collection, truck routes have almost tripled compared to when there was only one pick up. But there’s a huge savings, increased employment, extended landfill life and marketable value of bioproducts that include sales of compost.

FROM Biocycle, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner.