First Person] "The Era of Making Money from Garbage: My View of the Backside of Medical Waste" - 1994

First Person] "The Era of Making Money from Garbage: My View of the Backside of Medical Waste" - 1994
Back then, medical waste was truly "money-making garbage. The bubble economy had burst, and the future of our main business was in doubt. Needles and gauze with blood on them were given special treatment by law, and the disposal cost, which had previously been about 50 yen per kilogram, suddenly jumped to 1,000 yen.

I thought, "This is going to be delicious. All you needed was an incinerator and a truck to get started. We also started our own disposal business, but if we had followed the law properly, we would never have made any money. Eventually, there were companies that would take on the work for 50 yen, and there was no way they were doing a proper job. Illegal dumping and the use of old-fashioned incinerators were the norm.

When a farmer told me that the vegetables in his field had been acting strangely lately, it was indeed heartbreaking. But the government wouldn't act, and no one took responsibility. Looking back, I am finally beginning to understand that that was an environmental crime.