From Illegal Dumping to Export: The Transformation of Dark Outlaws" (early 2000s)

From Illegal Dumping to Export: The Transformation of Dark Outlaws" (early 2000s)
In the 1990s, Japan, still reeling from the collapse of the bubble economy, was rushing to establish laws to make the environmental business a new growth industry under the ideals of a "recycling-oriented society" and "zero emissions. The Containers and Packaging Recycling Law (1995), the Home Appliance Recycling Law (1998), and the Construction, Food, and Automobile Recycling Laws were enacted one after another, making the year 2000 a milestone year that could be called the "first year of recycling.
However, behind the scenes, contradictions in the system and tectonic shifts in the economy created the seeds for other businesses. In Chiba Prefecture, illegal dumping is widespread due to a lack of construction waste treatment facilities. Organized industrial waste networks were taking advantage of the urban redevelopment boom and were active in the dark. Around 2003, however, such networks seemingly disappeared as a result of tighter enforcement and a slowdown in construction demand.
In reality, however, they had "transformed. With China's entry into the WTO and its rapid economic growth, demand for resources such as iron, nonferrous metals, and plastics skyrocketed. Waste materials, which in Japan were simply "trash" that required disposal costs, were now selling for high prices as "resources" in China. The former industrial waste outlaws were among the first to notice this gap.
They skillfully exploited the gray area of the law and turned themselves into exporters. The industrial waste G-men run into the person they arrested in the illegal dumping case, this time at the port. If we don't do it, who will?
The system has evolved. But the darkness that takes advantage of it also evolves. Each time a new recycling law is enacted, a new "behind-the-scenes" business is born. Containers and packaging, home appliances, foodstuffs, construction, and automobiles - outlaws have emerged in each of these industries. The boundary between legal and illegal has become blurred, and a "legal battle of wits" quietly continues.
The "resource-recycling society" envisioned by the government has in reality been transformed into a "society that drains resources to China. Chinese buyers have been taking "usable waste" away from Japan, while recycling in Japan is costly. Containers and packaging that we carefully sorted are now being turned into profits for exporters, and are once again crossing the sea.
Illegal dumping has certainly decreased. But the crime has not disappeared; it has only changed in form and method. Intravenous logistics - the distribution of waste - now crosses borders, and former outlaws continue to do business with impunity in their new home.
The cry is now echoing not from underground, but from the container terminals: "The law is not everything."