Bags that connect soil to the future Hiroshima's experiment with decomposable garbage bags (around 1993)

Bags that connect soil to the future Hiroshima's experiment with decomposable garbage bags (around 1993)

In the early 1990s, Japan was facing an urgent need to change from a mass-waste society as final disposal sites became increasingly tight and incinerators aged, and a declaration of a waste emergency in 1989 triggered an important policy to reduce and recycle food waste, and biodegradable plastics began to attract attention as a new disposal method that could replace incineration and landfill. At the time, biodegradable materials were not only used in the food waste industry, but also in the food industry. Biodegradable materials at that time included starch-based materials, polylactic acid, and microbially produced polyesters, which were an early form of today's bioplastics.

Against this backdrop, the City of Hiroshima and the town of Fuchu in Hiroshima Prefecture launched a model project to see if it was possible to compost whole bags of food waste. Biodegradable bags were expected to be a solution to the problems of conventional composting, in which removal of plastic bags is a burden and compost quality is compromised by foreign matter. In the demonstration, bags were distributed to residents, and food waste was collected in the bags and the decomposition process was examined at a composting facility. The material at that time had a slow decomposition rate, and temperature and moisture control were important, so the local government, researchers, and manufacturers worked together to verify the conditions.

Although there were challenges to complete decomposition, results were achieved, such as a reduction in bag removal work and foreign material contamination, and this effort became a pioneering example that led to the Food Recycling Law and the spread of bioplastics in later years. The Hiroshima experiment was a symbolic attempt to change the future of waste disposal from materials technology.