Mr. Seiji Nanno
Director,  Waste Management Department,
Environment Bureau, City of Kobe

Japanese environmental policy is currently approaching a major crossroads.  Until now, the Environment Agency has borne the responsibility for preventing used materials from becoming waste and regulating to avoid any bad effects on the environment during the course of waste treatment.  The disposal of waste itself has been controlled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. However, a plan to reorganize the Environment Agency into the Ministry of the Environment for more consistent administration has been enacted, and the waste disposal section of the Ministry of Health and Welfare is scheduled to be transferred to the new Ministry of the Environment.

The history of waste disposal in Japan shows that initially, before the Waste Cleaning and Disposal Law came into effect in 1900, waste was simply dumped or used for agriculture. In the second stage (1900 - 1954), the waste was managed from the viewpoint of preventing the spread of infectious diseases.  In the third phase (1954 - 1971), the Public Cleansing Law placed greater emphasis on sanitary waste treatment than on the prevention of infectious diseases. In the fourth stage (1971 - 1991), appropriate waste treatment emphasized conserving the environment.  In the present fifth stage, since 1991, waste recycling and reduction of waste generation have been promoted to reduce the total volume of waste.  Japanese waste management started with the treatment of produced waste, but the central government finally has started addressing itself to the control of the generation of waste.

1. Waste types and responsibilities for disposal

Industrial waste generated by business activities is regulated by laws and ordinances. Industrial waste must be treated by the business source itself or be consigned to a licensed industrial waste treatment contractor. Waste which is not classified as industrial waste is termed "general waste". General waste is further classified into general household waste, generated at each household, and general business waste, generated by business activities. The City of Kobe collects and disposes of general household waste, and a business itself or a licensed general waste disposal contractor collects and disposes of general business waste. General waste and industrial waste under special control - including infectious waste such as syringe needles, explosive waste, poisonous waste, and waste which may cause damage to human health or the living environment - is disposed of in accordance with special disposal standards.

Actual classification under this scheme is not easy. Last year the central government decided to give financial assistance to cities for treating illegally dumped industrial waste.  However, in most cases it is difficult to determine if the illegally dumped waste is general business waste or industrial waste. The classification system was established to determine who is responsible for disposal and whether the general waste produced should be incinerated or dumped at landfill sites. For example, in Kobe, general business waste is collected by licensed contractors and brought to a municipal incineration facility or a landfill site. Industrial waste is disposed of by licensed contractors at privately-owned incinerators or taken to private landfill sites.

The City of Kobe classifies waste by the collection systems employed: household waste, bulky/nonflammable waste and recyclable waste (cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles). Household waste includes kitchen waste, paper, plants and fabrics.  Bulky/nonflammable waste includes glass, metals, furniture and plastics. In Kobe, household waste is collected free of charge, but waste collected from business activities incurs a charge when disposed of at city facilities.  In Japan, waste collection systems differ with each local government. The city charges for the collection of large-sized waste generated by business activities because it requires a special service.

2. Current situation of waste generation and its causes

The population of Kobe has doubled, and the volume of waste has increased roughly seven-fold in the last 70 years. Over the past 30 years, of all the material, incinerated paper increased from 22 percent to 31 percent and that plastics from 3.5 percent to 10 percent. Changing lifestyles and the improving living standards led to the increase in waste volume, which is posing serious problems. These include higher costs due to the increase in the number of waste collection workers and the number of incinerators, air contamination caused by incineration process, and a shortage of dumping sites. In 1998, the city handled about 890,000 tons of waste at a cost of \39.6 billion.

Waste management in Japan began with treatment. It hasn't sought the reduction of waste generation. Manufacturers have been allowed to produce as much as they wish. The economy has grown under the mass-production/mass-consumption system. Now business, government, and the public are being asked to give more attention to the global environment than to personal affluence.

3. Waste disposal system in Kobe

Household waste is to be placed in a semi-transparent plastic bag and put out at a waste collection site called a "station" on two designated days each week. One station provides for about 30 houses. A mobile packer collects household waste from each station and carries it to an incineration facility. For apartment blocks, waste is collected by a vehicle with special equipment that mechanically inverts a large container. Those living in apartment blocks put their household waste in common containers, and the special mobile packer lifts the container and dumps its contents into the body of the mobile packer.

At the incineration facility, heat generated by burning the waste is utilized for power generation. Part of the generated power is consumed at the facility, and the rest is sold to an electric power company. The heat is also used to warm water to be used in an indoor swimming pool nearby. The ash produced by incinerating waste is dumped in an offshore landfill site managed by a corporation which is backed financially by the central and local governments. In 1998, the volume of household waste collected in Kobe was about 450,000 tons.

Bulky/nonflammable wastes are picked up at a different station on two designated days each month. One station provides for about 70 to 80 houses. The city collects bulky/nonflammable waste by mobile packers and dumps it at the two landfill sites. As a mountainous city, Kobe finds it easier to secure disposal sites than do other cities. At the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, the city was able to remove all the debris and rubble immediately to the two dumping sites. However, if waste increases at the present rate, the two landfill sites will be full in about 10 years. Because of the opposition to the establishment of a new landfill site for disposal, the city is now constructing a facility for crushing and sorting waste.  In this facility, large-sized waste will be crushed into small pieces to collect recyclable substances including metals. Combustible fragments will be incinerated, and only the remainder will be dumped into landfill sites. For disposal of large furniture, each household is required to break down large furniture into pieces less than one meter in any dimension before putting them out at a station. Refrigerators and air conditioners containing CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) gases, washing machines, and bicycles are collected by a separate truck and dumped at the landfill sites.

This waste collection system has the following features:

• Since waste is collected at frequent intervals, households do not need to hold waste for long periods of time.
• In the past, waste was collected from a dustbin in front of each house, but this created sanitation problems. The current system avoids that problem. It also improves the city's appearance.

1. Residents tend to generate more waste because they don't bear the burden of treating it.
2. In some cases, flammable substances are put out and are collected by mobile packers. Consequently, about 25 fire accidents are reported every year.
3. The developer has the responsibility for providing a garbage station at newly built apartment blocks.  Other stations, which account for about two thirds of the total, are situated at roadsides. The location of a station is determined by agreement among the local residents, but this is not easy because each resident wants to avoid having the station placed near his/her house.
4. Some residents put waste out on days other than the pickup day, which causes problems with neighboring households.

These problems have to be overcome by improving the awareness and the manners of each resident.

The city collects recyclable waste, including cans and plastic bottles, from about 300,000 households, about 60 percent of the total number of households in Kobe. Recyclables are picked up on two designated days per month. They are sorted and compressed at the recycling center and then sold to recycling companies. The city collects recyclable waste only from the areas which have committees to sort it. At present used glass bottles are collected under a pilot project from 10,000 households.  The bottles need to be sorted by color for collection, a time-consuming process.

Waste separation by residents prior to collection is not making progress in large cities. Some small cities have a system for sorting waste into more than 10 types. Such detailed sorting of waste requires more disposal stations, which tend to obstruct the roadway. The free flow of traffic is a major consideration in large cities, and makes it difficult to introduce such a sorting system. Smaller cities have a tighter social structure, with greater adherence to social expectations than in larger cities.

4. Outline of treatment facilities

The City of Kobe operates five incineration facilities and two landfill sites. Kobe is also among 117 municipalities in the six Kinki district prefectures which are involved in the Phoenix Project. Under the project the cities, in cooperation with the central government, will use a landfill to create an artificial island in Osaka Bay. The City of Kobe has already started transporting incineration ash to the landfill site. The project is mainly for the benefit of municipalities which do not have mountains or sea on which to build waste landfills. If they tried to dispose of all waste by incineration, pollution prevention costs would be enormous.  In addition, the objections of residents, and high building costs, make it difficult to create privately run disposal sites for industrial waste.These are the reasons for the central government and local governments to start landfill projects like the Phoenix Project.

In recent years, increasing attention has been given worldwide to the level of dioxin emitted by incineration facilities.In Japan, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has　established　emission standards (Table1) for dioxin generated by incinerators. The standards call for dioxin levels to be reduced by December 1998 to not more than 80 ng-TEQ/Nm³. By December 2002, the new standards will require still lower limits.

A survey conducted in 1997 (Table 2) showed that Kobe's disposal facilities satisfy the December 1998 standard. However, for fear that some facilities would not be able to meet the 2002 standard, the city introduced bag filters to further reduce dioxin emissions. Providing the bag filters at one site cost about JPN5 billion.

Table 2: Amount of Dioxin Released from Incinerators in Kobe (1998)
            (Unit: ng-TEQ/Nm³)

Incineration facility	Higashi	Ochiai	Minatojima	Karumojima	Nishi
Dioxin level	1.20	0.45	0.25	1.10	0.13

Dioxin can be decomposed by combustion at a temperature of 800°C and above.  At incineration facilities in Kobe, waste is incinerated around the clock at above 800°C.  The exhaust gas is emitted into the atmosphere only after the soot and dust are removed from it by the dust collector. A large volume of waste has to be burned continually to keep the temperature above 800°C. It is also necessary to pay high equipment expenses. Smaller cities have to generate sufficient waste to be burned to maintain the required high combustion temperature. An incineration system for joint use seems to be a solution, although it involves many problems, including the selection of a construction site.  To secure personnel with relevant knowledge for operating the complicated incineration system is another problem to be solved.

5. Recycling system in Kobe

The City of Kobe has been promoting the reduction of disposable waste using a motto based on three R's: "Reduce," "Reuse," and "Recycle."

"Reduce" stands for slashing the amount of garbage generated by making lifestyles more environment-oriented. To that end, the city urges owners of office buildings to take systematic measures toward waste reduction, promotes more simplified wrapping by retailers, and asks consumers to think twice about the necessity of what they are going to buy.

"Reuse" promotes the idea of making further use of discarded items. The city holds several flea markets every year and manages an information system for reusing goods. One of the "Reuse" activities in our everyday life is the nationwide deposit system for used beer bottles.

Although the deposit system is considered effective for the promotion of reuse of containers, it appears to take some time to apply this system to other container types, due to complicated authority sharing among Ministries. This system has been implemented for beer bottles only, because the Ministry of Health and Welfare, in charge of waste disposal, has no authority to control business activities. Reuse of plastic bottles and other plastics occurs in the stage before waste is generated and is therefore controlled by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) or the Environment Agency. MITI has long been implementing policies to invigorate industries, and "Reuse" is a task for them to face in the future.

"Recycle” involves the utilization of goods as a resource.  The city separately collects used newspapers, cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles discarded from households.  To encourage recycling, the city has given a subsidy to community-based bodies at a rate of \4 per kilogram.  However, the recycling system now in existence is affected by fluctuations in market prices.  About eight years ago, collection contractors purchased used newspapers from neighborhood associations for \7 to \8 per kilogram, to which the city contributed an additional \3. After the bubble economy collapsed, paper manufacturers lowered their price for used paper sharply. As a result, collection contractors stopped buying used papers and started charging neighborhood associations for hauling the papers away.  To maintain the community-based efforts at recycling, the city has increased its aid for them to the present \4 in response to a request for increased subsidy.  If this collection system collapses, the city will have to pay the cost of collecting and incinerating 30,000 tons of used paper annually.  Accordingly, the amount of increased subsidy is smaller than the increased costs that the city would incur by disposing of the newspapers themselves. This system does not identify the responsibilities of manufacturers that provide large volumes of paper or companies that consume large amounts of paper.  Actions by local government either to subsidize the collection process or to collect it themselves only happens after the refuse has been discarded. The real solution will lie in refashioning our mass production/mass consumption society.

There are three processes under which the city operates or approves recycling of discarded material.  Under "voluntary collection", authorized businesses collect their used products, such as beer bottles, on their own and reuse them or manufacture new products using the collected items as raw materials. The other two methods use a "designated foundation" or an "approved recycling route". In both cases, citizen groups sort products that the municipalities then collect separately and compact in an intermediate processing stage. The compacted materials then go either to a foundation approved by the government for the secure and appropriate recycling of a particular class of material, or they go to recycling contractors consigned by users, such as container and packaging manufacturers. The approved recycling route was included in the 1995 recycling statute to permit continuation of the glass bottle recycling process that was under way long before the recycling regulations were established. At present the Japan Container and Package Association is the only designated foundation.

In November 1997, the City of Kobe started the separate collection of used glass bottles and plastic bottles. Plastic bottles are collected with used cans from about 60 percent of households in the whole city. About 54 tons of plastic bottles were collected by March 1998.  As a trial, the city conducted a collection of glass bottles from 10,000 households in the whole city and amassed 22 tons of recyclable glass.

6. New measures toward recycling

Recently, two new laws that enforce recycling of goods on manufacturers were enacted. One is the "Container and Package Recycling Law," established in 1995. At present in Japan, fish and meat are packed on plastic trays. Sweets are wrapped individually for sale in boxes. These containers and packages account for about 60 percent of Japan's total waste volume. This law calls on consumers, municipalities and businesses to bear more responsibility and make efforts to cut down on waste discharge. The specific obligation of these three parties are as follows: consumers are required to sort waste for disposal; municipalities are to implement a separate collection for these; and businesses are to recycle sorted materials themselves or consign recycling to designated foundations or recycling contractors. Applicable types of recyclable materials have included used glass bottles, cans and plastic bottles since April 1997. They will also include used corrugated cardboard, paper containers, and plastic containers after April 2000.

The major characteristic of the Container and Package Recycling Law is the identification of the responsibility of businesses and the initial establishment of recycling routes. However, businesses bear only the recycling expenses, while expenses for collection and intermediate treatment are borne by municipalities. In fact, the burden on municipalities is much larger than on businesses. Furthermore, if businesses are small or medium-sized, they are exempted from bearing the cost of recycling, and the city is required to bear that cost instead.

In April 2000, the Container and Package Recycling Law will also be applied to corrugated cardboard, paper containers and plastic containers. Since corrugated cardboard is made of low- quality paper, it is not worth recycling. In addition, the increasing variety of plastic types in use makes sorting a problem. If collected materials are not recycled, there is no point in spending large quantities of taxpayer money on sorting and collecting. Furthermore, if expenses for recycling are borne chiefly by municipalities, there is no economic disincentive for the manufacture and the use of such products.

The other new law is the "Household Electric Appliances Recycling Law." This law will come into force in 2001. MITI took the initiative in establishing this law, which is designed to identify the responsibilities of consumers and businesses. The law is to be applied to used household electric appliances, including TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners.  Other items will be regulated successively in the future. The recycling process for household electric appliances is as follows: consumers will pay a retailer for disposal, and the retailer will collect the unwanted appliance and return it to the manufacturer together with the disposal fee. The manufacturer will then recycle usable parts of the appliance and dispose of non-recyclable parts as industrial waste.  In less populated areas where there are no retailers, a third party organization for collecting appliances will be established. If a manufacturer no longer exists, a third party organization for recycling will also be established.

The problem with the Household Electric Appliances Recycling Law is whether consumers will pay to have their discarded household electric appliances recovered.  The law may result in increased illegal dumping. Retailers are obliged to collect an unneeded household electric appliance so long as it was sold by them or a consumer purchases a new model from them. If a consumer moves elsewhere, however, a local retailer may not agree to collect unneeded household electric appliances.  Since most municipalities currently collect discarded household electric appliances as refuse, they need to establish a method of charging for collection and to set fees for each type of household electric appliance. The City of Kobe has been asking the central government to include recycling fees in the sales price of new household electric appliances.  However, this request has not been approved for the reason that it would not be possible to collect recycling expenses for appliances already in use. The Household Electric Appliances Recycling Law is epoch-making, but there is still a great need for further improvement.

7. A cleaner Kobe

A law concerning waste disposal imposes a maximum penalty of one-year imprisonment or a maximum fine of JPN3 million on people who dump waste illegally. If this law were strictly enforced, less illegal dumping would take place.Last June a major newspaper reported the arrest of two homemakers who had discarded household refuse on non-pickup days and another person who dumped business garbage. The newspaper reported these incidents as a lead story because the actual application of the punitive provision was very unusual and is only rarely enforced.These people were, however, not fined. The police seem to have made a judgement that unless people illegally dump large amounts of waste systematically with premeditated ill will, they are not able to say that their conduct is against the law. Generally speaking, Japanese people have the idea that throwing away cigarettes, papers, cans, and glass bottles will not really violate the law.

The City of Kobe started to take measures against littering in 1971. It established the "Kobe Clean Action" movement in 1972 in cooperation with local communities and businesses.In 1988, the "Kobe Urban Landscape Ordinance" was enacted. However, these efforts were derailed by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995 that changed the major part of the city into rubble.As a result, more people began to litter carelessly. The city then enacted the "Littering Prohibition Ordinance" in June 1997, which provided for fines up to JPN20,000 for those who litter in designated areas. The city also prohibits smoking while walking (unless one is carrying a portable ashtray) and smoking in places that do not have ashtrays. It is difficult to enforce the law against such offenses, and this law has not yet been invoked. Still, the public relations effect of this ordinance has been significant.A survey shows that since the ordinance was enacted the volume of street litter has fallen by half. Citizen attention and cooperation can be engaged.

[3] In order to scale down enlarged operations of the Ministries and Agencies, make them more efficient and reduce the number of employees to realize an "administrative reorganization", the present 1 Office and 21 Ministries and Agencies will be restructured in 2001 into 1 Office and 12 Ministries and Agencies.

[4] In Japan, the City of Kobe is an exception in that it allows some industrial wastes to be dumped into municipal landfill sites.