Standing on a hill overlooking the recently unveiled zero-waste hotel, garbage facility and upcycle shop in the town of Kamikatsu- the buildings are designed to form a question mark which asks us WHY?
As I stand up at this spot where I can see the mist on the mountains and listen to the sounds of insects and birds in the forest behind me, I am considering the WHY of our current garbage hurdles in Japan. I’m impressed with the design of this new build, but also more generally enamored by the progress this small town has been making since 2003 when it started aiming at more sustainable waste management practices.
I soon realize I am alone in my optimism as I look to my left at the German journalist who I have brought to the town to help him gain insights for his latest book- but he is less than impressed. He is shaking his head at an old fridge that has been dumped on the hillside right next to us, and many of those who visit the hill to see the design of the facility.
This is ridiculous! How can this be left here? Why doesn’t anyone deal with this?
I nod my head in agreement and immediately think of ways they could upcyle the ugly fridge into a cool shelf or container which would be on-brand displayed in the facility. Many of the most famous buildings in the town stylishly reutilize wasted materials as a key part of their unique and high-quality design.
I can also understand his disappointment as I think back to when I first visited the town in 2016 and was shocked that the first shop I stopped into still used single-use plastic bags and still sold products in single-use plastic packaging.
My own disappointment stemmed from my vision of an ideal sustainable destination and it didn’t meet my expectations. This journalist was also having an abrupt reality check on his expectations that the town should be able to manage garbage better than anywhere else. But this ugly garbage dumped clumsily on a hill couldn’t be ignored- to adapt use of a famous expression about our inability to see the bigger picture, he just couldn’t see the zero-waste brand for the fridge.
Later as we were at Kamikatsu’s famous zero-waste center where every resident must come to separate garbage into 45 categories and are told that the town has achieved a level of diversion from landfill at 80% which is 50% better than any other area of Japan.
This is especially impressive for the town of Kamikatsu, with a population of 1400 people and no typical garbage infrastructure, when compared to the megatropolis city of San Francisco, with a population of a million and curbside garbage pick-up which is also stuck at that upper level of 80%. Even Germany which is considered a recycling leader in Europe struggles to achieve higher levels than 67%.
Despite achieving much higher levels of efficiency than anywhere else in Japan and most of the world he said,
..but they failed- it’s not zero-waste, is it?!
He is not alone in criticizing the zero-waste town, many people disregard their efforts because they aren’t at zero. He took the “zero-waste town” brand at face value and felt that it damaged the brand of the town in his mind as they had failed to reach their target of zero-waste by 2020. They have now adjusted the new targets to 2030, but the reality is that unless the supply-chain of products and product design changes, they won’t be able to to achieve 100% diversion from landfill by 2030 either.
Kobayashi-san of BIG EYE Co. which runs the new zero-waste hotel WHY told Project Design Magazine,
..the last 20% may be impossible to achieve until product design changes.
This is what many entrepreneurs and activists in Kamikatsu, as well as around the world, have been saying for years which motivates many to actively communicate these design hurdles back to the companies that produce them.
In Kamikatsu, I talked with Akira Sakano years ago who inspired me with her collaboration and education of company designers who often didn’t realize the problems they were creating at the end of use stage.
If you go inside the community space in the WHY building, you can smell the KAO laundry soap kids play blocks from a collaboration they did with the company to upcycle the bottles and talk about design hurdles.
Personally, I think the soft approach of education and communication and making requests is effective for incremental change, but won’t be as effective as top-down governance change in Japan. It is clear that to reach decent reductions in waste around Japan and for Kamikatsu to hit 100% of the zero-waste target, we must have a complete ban of single-use plastics, strict rules, and countdowns to bans. Without severe financial penalties for the businesses which are actively polluting our towns and seas, they have no incentive to change.
Since the carrot doesn’t seem to work, we need the stick.
Despite the obvious progress the town is making, it is so easy for visitors and consumers to lose faith in a brand when they see inconsistent messaging and narratives like a fridge left on a hill, or biz-as-usual plastic bags given away in a shop, or garbage dumped from the road that can be seen from the river. Zero-Waste doesn’t mean they are AT zero, but that is what they are aiming to get to.
For people like me who are constantly on the look-out for sustainability in action, Kamikatsu town is a mecca of innovation and inspiration despite the small hiccups of inconsistency. I have also had the benefit of seeing the town develop and improve slowly and consistently over the years as I regularly visit for research, consulting trips, leisure excursions and orientation trips like this one.
On the flip side of disappointment is the admiration of visitors who are inspired to change their own lives and businesses from a visit here — they leave thinking it is worth trying in their own lives and communities.
I realize that as a self-described Kamikatsu-enthusiast it is also my duty to prime the visitors I introduce to the town. I need to prepare visitors for a visit to this town, give them a reality check on their expectations as we make our way here and help them realize that despite the many glowing articles on this perfect zero-waste-town, once they spend time here they will see inconsistencies and might feel disappointed that it is not perfect.
Actually, I think the lack of perfection makes the town, its residents and businesses more relatable. Community consensus is hard, yet there are so many key people working hard to continue on the path to zero-waste.
This ongoing effort to improve on a foundation of sustainability practices is the definition of a sustainable destination that I have only seen here in Kamikatsu.
To me, the most important factor is that they haven’t given up! As we get closer to the 20th anniversary of its initial zero-waste targets of 2003, it is key to see how the town continues to strive toward its sustainability goals and there is ongoing progress and innovation. That said, it is probably a good idea to deal with that fridge on the hill ASAP!
