As Japan faces
land scarcity, there is lesser landfill sites for rubbish and people are
expected to practice recycling diligently. When all recycling efforts have been
utilized in resource recovery, the remaining wastes are deemed non-recyclable
and are buried in landfills. According to a research article, every citizen
contributes 0.6kg to refuse collection per day and 0.23kg is sent to landfills,
as of the year 2000 (Tanaka et al., 2005). This considerable reduction can be
attributed to the high recycling efforts, which I have outlined previously. As
seen in Diagram 1, ever since the Container and Packaging Recycling Law was
enacted in 1997, the amount of landfilled waste has spotted a declining trend
despite the increasing amount of municipal waste collected.
Diagram 1: Amount of municipal waste designated for landfills (Source: Tanaka et al., 2005)
A breakdown of
landfill waste in year 2000 reveals that 17% is residue from recycling or
material recovery, 54% is incineration residue and 29% are untreated waste (ibid.). Since landfill waste are slowly
degraded underground, environmental risks such as leachate leak and release of
landfill gas must be prevented. According to the Solid Waste Management Law
since it was passed in year 1971, all landfills must meet the Guidelines for Municipal
Solid Waste Landfill set by authorities, in order to receive a subsidy that
covers a quarter of the landfill construction cost (ibid.). Multi-barrier protectors must be included in landfill
design (see Diagram 2) and there should be at least 50cm thick of soil cover to
prevent infestation of flies and vermins.
Diagram 2: Multi-barrier design of landfill (Source: Tanaka et al., 2005)
As of today,
there are 200 landfill sites in Japan most of which are situated in mountainous
areas, away from the public. The strategic selection for remote areas was to
reduce the public’s NIMBY (not in my backyard) reaction and to prevent landfill
leaks to surrounding residential sites (Tanaka et al., 2005). However, there is
one famous landfill site located near the city of Tokyo, the Tokyo Bay
landfill. The landfill site is divided into 23 wards and has received
12.3million tons of garbage in 15 years, from 1973 till 1987 (Hashida, 2014). Wise
utilization of the landfill can be seen whereby a pipeline collecting methane
gas from the landfill is linked to a nearby power plant. Ambitious plans to
convert this Island of Garbage (Kirby, 2011) into an entertainment site with
golf links and marine park is in progress. Japan can expect the opening of a
Sea Forest Marine Park, or Umi-no-mari, by year 2016 (see video below). This
marine park cost about $54 million dollars and will be decorated with more than
480,000 young trees. The government plans to use this 88 hectares marine park
to educate the public about waste problem in the country and develop a more
recycle-oriented society (Hashida, 2014). To boost publicity, it will also be a
venue for the cross-country competition of 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Using the Sea
Forest Marine Park as an educational tool, the government seeks to abandon the
NIMBY reaction of residents and get Japanese to come to terms with their
consumption-oriented culture. From land waste, to landfill site and
subsequently artificial land, waste has indeed become a resource for Japan.
However, the landfills in Japan can result in an environmental catastrophe when
a major earthquake strikes. This topic will be discussed in my next blog post,
so keep watching on!
References
Kirby, Peter Wynn. Troubled Natures. Honolulu:
University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2011. Print.
Tanaka, Nobutoshi, Yasumasa Tojo, and Toshihiko
Matsuto. 'Past, Present, And Future Of MSW Landfills In Japan'. Journal of
Material Cycles and Waste Management 7.2 (2005): 104-111. Web. Retrieved
from http://wastegr2-er.eng.hokudai.ac.jp/home_old/publish/03.pdf
Hashida, Masaki. 'Island Of Trash In Tokyo Bay
Transforming Into Forested Olympic Venue'. The Asahi Shimbun 2014. Web.
Retrieved from http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201407250015
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