A Zero-Waste Community: the story of Kamikatsu
How a small town from Japan is making ‘zero-waste’ a reality.
Waste management is one of the most challenging yet vital tasks for urban areas in newly developing nations. Huge ‘waste treatment gaps’ can be seen in the developing world. A new consumer class has risen out of poverty over the last fifteen years which has lead to an exponential increase in waste generation that simply hasn’t been matched by commensurate governmental investment into collection and treatment capabilities.
It’s worth mentioning that non-governmental organisations like Greenpeace and MotherEarth Foundation and consumer goods companies like Unilever have taken important steps and circulated awareness campaigns but the execution of such initiatives fall well short of having the necessary impact.
There are a few cities and local governments that have developed trial zero waste programmes like Gipuzkoa in Spain and Contarina in Italy but perhaps the most successful has been in a quaint town in Japan called Kamikatsu.
A small picturesque village on Shikoku Island in Southeastern Japan, Kamikatsu is domestically renowned as one of the most beautiful spots in Japan, with impressive mountain backdrops, scenic rivers, and lush green valleys as far as the eye can see. It is a tightly knit community of approx. 1,600 residents that primarily work on the land or in the manufacturing of regional crafts.
The Kamikatsu zero waste initiative started in 1997 when the National Diet banned open incineration and local governments were tasked with the responsibility of dealing with their own waste. The options of digging landfill sites or buying closed, waste-to-energy incinerators were discussed but neither were popular due to the substantial costs involved; both environmentally and budgetary. That was the beginning.
At first, trash was to be segregated into nine different categories, cleaned and taken to the local waste centre. The centre would then weigh the deposited waste and calculate how much the town would either earn from recycling or lose in paying for sustainable services to dispose of certain types of waste.
There was some initial resistance to the scheme, with the hassle of sorting and cleaning waste a big, habitual change for the community. Residents found it time-consuming to wash and dry their trash before sorting it into relevant bins. However, the community, propped up by a sense of social accountability to one another, persevered.
As time went by, the categories were expanded to accommodate more types of waste; it soon went from nine to twenty-two, then thirty-four and now, forty-five. The category increase has been staggered over time but acts as proof of a two-decade long, ingrained behavioural change and shows the continued commitment of the community to their zero waste goal.
This programme has also had a large effect on residents’ consumption habits — they have become much more conscious about the packaging involved in consumer goods, and as a result of the lengthy period required to clean and separate waste, their purchasing habits have changed. Residents now prefer to buy goods with simple or no packaging.
Local businesses have been forced to involve themselves in the scheme and have had to change the product-lines that they sell. They no longer offer goods with unnecessary packaging and often require customers to bring their own bags and containers, to store and carry their purchases back home. The local government provides accreditation and support for businesses that execute such zero waste practices.
Not only have social attitudes changed, but a thriving second hand market has established itself where people leave their unwanted items for anyone in the community to collect and use for free. The ‘reuse rate’ of old items left at the market stands at 85%.
Kamikatsu is currently at an 80% recycling rate and they are striving for 100% by 2020… in time for the summer Tokyo Olympics. While the town continues to look for new and innovative ways to reuse and recycle, the question must be asked — is the Kamikatsu model scalable?
Some of the effectiveness of this programme may be dependent on certain facets of the unique Japanese culture and in the small sample size within Kamikatsu but certain factors are certainly replicable on a global level.
Effective waste segregation and management initiatives begin with thorough education, a simple, easy to follow process, plenty of positive reinforcement and a strong social accountability. This is certainly a scalable foundation from which people’s mindsets will surely begin to shift much closer to that of the Kamikatsans.
Projects do need to be tailored to the specific cultural psyche and unique local issues seen in different regions but a wave of new technology based solutions are helping to make this an easier proposition. The mobile application Solu, optimises the end-to-end waste collection chain and connects households to collection centres so users can sell their segregated waste materials and turn a profit.
Proper waste disposal is an urgent international concern but with initiatives like the Kamikatsu model proving the viability of the zero waste concept and new technologies like Solu emerging, perhaps a scalable solution is within our midst.
This article was written by Abigail Azul and edited by Matthew Barrie. Thanks go to Mick Murray and Cherise Fong.
