Page 32 - IBs November 2022

Environment Environment

Osaki community leader, Shoichi Hidaka.

JAPAN’S RECYCLING TOWN

CAN IT INSPIRE THE PACIFIC?

Story and Photos: Samantha Magick Sorting at source
It’s a crisp morning and Osaki residents are arriving in small
When the residents of Osaki in southern Japan were first cars and trucks with their month’s accumulated rubbish.
told about new plans for waste management and recycling in Mixed soft plastics, such as wrappers from instant noodles,
their small town, some were unhappy. are rinsed at home and placed in specially provided pink bags.
“They threw cans at us,” said the Assistant Section Chief Newspapers, magazines and other papers are sorted by type
and Manager of Environmental Measures Section at Osaki Town and neatly bound in twine. Clothes are washed and folded and
Office, Shizuto Takehara, (speaking through an interpreter) of tied into bundles.
those early meetings. Residents can bring other goods, which are sorted into
Now Osaki has been recognised as Japan’s number one recy- small blue crates by a team led by community leader, Shoichi
cling town for 13 years running. Hidaka. Metals such as bottle tops and lengths of wire go
The shift started when town authorities realised that the into one crate. Broken and discarded crockery is placed into
existing town landfill, which had been designed to serve the another. Batteries have their own box. One crate is filled with
town for 15 years, was almost full in just five. used chopsticks and small wooden items.
There were three options; build a costly incinerator, de- There is no food waste.
velop a new landfill site, or tackle the issue at its source. Kitchen scraps and organic material make up 60% of rubbish
The government opted for the later. Now Osaki’s residents collected in Osaki, but it does not go to landfill. Residents put
separate their waste in up to 27 categories, compost all their their food waste in caged blue bins that line Osaki’s streets.
food waste and subscribe to the motto inscribed on their Each bin is shared by ten households and is emptied several
garbage trucks, “If you miss it, it will become garbage. If you times a week.
separate it, it will become a resource.” When collected, the waste is taken to a privately-owned

32 Islands Business, November 2022