Bags that Link Soil to the Future Hiroshima's experiment with decomposable garbage bags (1993)

Bags that Link Soil to the Future Hiroshima's experiment with decomposable garbage bags (1993)

In the early 1990s, Japan's waste administration was at a major turning point. The structure of mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal that had supported Japan's rapid economic growth had reached its limits, and the tightness of final disposal sites and aging incinerators were becoming serious problems throughout the country. 1989 saw the declaration of a national waste emergency, and local governments began to search for new ways to reduce food waste and turn it into resources, raising hopes for biodegradable plastics.

In response to this trend, the City of Hiroshima and the Town of Fuchu in Hiroshima Prefecture launched a model project to test the feasibility of using biodegradable plastic garbage bags to compost food waste in the bags. The system was groundbreaking in that the entire bag decomposes, as removing the plastic bag is a burden in conventional composting, and contamination with foreign matter can lead to a decline in compost quality.

In the demonstration test, biodegradable bags were distributed to residents, and food scraps were collected in the bags, and their decomposition was verified at the composting facility. The material at that time had a slow decomposition rate and required adjustments in temperature, moisture, and air permeability, so the manufacturer, researchers, and local government continued to work together to observe the situation.

Although it took some time for the material to fully decompose, the project achieved results such as improved work efficiency and reduced foreign matter contamination, and became a pioneering effort that would later lead to the Food Recycling Law and the spread of bioplastics.