RISING TIDE OF TRASH
TOKYO: Japan’s crows have never had it so good.
Dustbin bags awaiting collection bulge with rotting garbage a ready feast for the jet-black scavengers.
In Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza shopping district, home of the world’s costliest real estate, rats thrive among overflowing trash cans stacked outside bars and restaurants.
For the human population, however, Japan’s ever growing rubbish mountains are proving a big headache.
Japanese urban residents in 1992 threw away 37.6 million tonnes of garbage, or more than 1.1 kg (2.5 lbs) per person per day, according to a report by the Japan Association of City Mayors (JACM).
That’s an increase of nearly 40 per cent over 10 years.
This overcrowded island nation has 618 garbage dumps with a total capacity of 335 million cubic metres (388 million cubic yards). Most are two-thirds full and are likely to reach saturation within six years, the report said.
Dumped
Most of Japan’s rubbish is dumped on land but an unknown amount is washed by river out to sea.
Scientists recently had to place satellite-linked buoys around Japan to help trace the destination of garbage drifting into the Pacific.
Faced with such problems, the authorities are grappling for ways of reducing the amount of rubbish Japanese throw away.
The JACM is pushing the idea of a pay-as-you-throw system whereby consumers fork out to have their rubbish collected.
"A consumer-pay system forces people to think carefully before throwing things away," said a JACM spokesman.
He said many people saw garbage as solely the responsibility of local government, but individual households and private businesses must also share the burden.
The association groups 663 cities, accounting for about 80 per cent of the Japanese population.
Only 53 cities currently levy a charge for garbage collection, but many others are considering introducing the system, the spokesman said.
One city which introduced the pay-system reduced the amount of garbage by almost half over several years, he added.
Not everybody is convinced. One foreign resident, in a letter to the English-language Japan Times, said the real culprit behind Japan’s rising tide of trash was the excessive amount of wrapping and packaging used by manufacturers here.
Waste
He suggested the most effective way of tackling waste and promoting environmentally friendly attitudes would be a tax on manufacturers rather than on consumers.
Packaging offered by Japanese shops is unparalleled in other nations.
For example, it is not unusual to find gift cartons of biscuits individually wrapped inside their boxes, nestled in corrugated paper, inside a plastic bag, in a tin or box, covered with wrapping paper and presented in a shopping bag.
Basic grocery items like fruit, even single carrots, often come individually wrapped in cellophane.
• Even in Japan, land of disposable chopsticks and elaborate wrapping paper, the retail industry has now begun taking environmental concerns on board.
"We are trying to cut the amount of wrapping paper to about a third," said Masayuki Tsubota, environmental manager for Isetan Department Store.
"Isetan has also been promoting the use of recycled paper and last year some 35 per cent of all wrapping paper used in our stores was recycled," he said. — Reutar
Source : The Malay Mail, July 3 1993
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