Mr. Koji Okada, Manager, General Affairs Division, Environment Bureau, Kobe City Government

Mr. Koji Okada, explained the organizational structure of the Environment Bureau of Kobe City, and its focus on making Kobe an ‘eco-town’.

With 1.57 million inhabitants, Kobe is Japan’s seventh largest city. As the venue for a meeting of the G-8 Environment Ministers in May, 2008, the city heard first-hand the meeting’s message that cities should become low carbon recycling oriented societies, and now strives to achieve this aim. 

As of March 2009, the Environment Bureau was made up of 1,446 personnel, and its three main departments are the Resource Recycling Department, the Industrial Waste Management Office and the Environment Improvement Planning Department. 

Under the Resource Recycle Department, the Environment Policy Division arranges planning of policies for the city, based on environmental research with local institutions. This is the Division responsible for strategizing the promotion of separation of domestic waste. Recycling starts at the household level, where citizens separate waste into six categories, and for each there are specific bags, and carefully planned collection methods and times. The six categories are recycled cans, glass and P.E.T. plastic bottles; plastic packaging containers (in one pilot ward, due to be expanded city-wide); large furniture and bulky waste (collected to order through a payment system starting at 300 yen); non burnable waste; gas canisters and spray cans (separated for safety); and burnable waste (mainly kitchen waste). Each of the city’s nine wards has its own Branch Office, responsible for collection and transportation of domestic waste twice a week for ‘burnable’ and once weekly for other waste. These are run by a combined staff of 798, including waste collectors and waste vehicle drivers. The city’s five ‘clean centers’, staffed by 293, incinerate burnable waste, and the ash is transported to one of two landfills (see p. 11), which also take non-burnable, non-reusable waste. 

The Industrial Waste Management Office deals with waste generated by offices and industrial plants (categorized into 20 types). It also collects waste which is abandoned outside the urban area. Under Japanese regulations, businesses are responsible for the disposal of their own waste, but the city government provides guidance and monitoring. 

The Environment Improvement Planning Department works towards making Kobe a reduced carbon society, by tackling air, water, land and noise pollution; promoting the reduction of the city’s carbon emissions; and reducing reliance on fossil fuel by increasing wind and solar energy use. This Department also improves community awareness by arranging environmental education activities for schools. The concept of an ‘eco-town’ is promoted to citizens, to encourage their participation in reducing the city’s waste. 

Integrated efforts to increase citizen participation in separation and recycling of waste have paid off. The total amount of waste produced by the city has dropped from 740,476 tons in 2006 to 639,750 tons in 2009.