Living in the Soil - Food Waste Composting Project in Nerima Ward, Tokyo (2003)

Living in the Soil - Food Waste Composting Project in Nerima Ward, Tokyo (2003)

In 2003, a resident-led composting project was launched in earnest in Tokyo's Nerima Ward, aiming to reduce the amount of household food waste and recycle it as a resource. Behind the project was the serious issue of soaring waste disposal costs in urban areas and tight landfill space. Nerima Ward, in particular, is a lush green area of Tokyo with a relatively large amount of farmland and parks, and its residents are highly environmentally conscious, which encouraged this project.

At the time, the entire Tokyo metropolitan government was also calling for a review of waste disposal, and the three pillars of recycling--reduce, reuse, and recycle--were required to be realized. Food waste was a particular challenge, accounting for more than 30% of the total waste volume, and composting, in which garbage is returned to nature rather than being incinerated, attracted attention as an experimental and hopeful model for urban recycling.

In the Nerima Ward initiative, neighborhood associations, citizen groups, and NPOs collaborated to distribute household composting containers to each household, providing regular guidance and feedback on the results. The collected compost was used for greening and maintenance of nearby farmlands and parks, thus realizing "visualization of circulation" in the city. The fact that citizens were able to experience the cycle of "waste produced returns to the soil and grows flowers and vegetables" was an aspect of environmental education that went beyond mere recycling.

This example of Nerima Ward demonstrates the possibility of harmony between the city and nature, and is recognized as a small step but a solid practice in the search for a path to a sustainable society. It is still talked about as a leading model of food waste recycling for many municipalities.