Environment Looking at the Cycle of Life - The Story of Feces Recycling at Hamura Zoological Park 1999

Environment Looking at the Cycle of Life - The Story of Feces Recycling at Hamura Zoological Park 1999

At the end of the 1990s, Japan was experiencing a surge of interest in waste management and recycling. The Containers and Packaging Recycling Law was fully enforced in 1997, requiring local governments and businesses to reduce waste. One such example is the "animal feces recycling" program started at the Hamura City Animal Park in Tokyo.

The park keeps large animals such as elephants and zebras, which generate a large amount of feces on a daily basis. The park's officials decided to install a composting system to make effective use of the waste. The compost is fermented and aged to make compost, which is then sold at the garden's direct sales outlet, where it has proved more popular than expected. Local residents who enjoy vegetable gardening bought the compost one after another, sometimes selling out. The people involved in the garden also commented, "The disposal cost has been cut in half, and the public is happy with the results. I didn't think it would be so well received," they said with a smile.

At the time, recycling was widely thought of as a burden and cost increase, but this initiative attracted attention as an example of how it could benefit the local economy and the lives of local residents. The park feces composting was also a small experiment that embodied the idea of a recycling-oriented society. It was the moment when the idea of turning waste into a resource went beyond a mere environmental measure and became a way of "enjoying life.

These efforts are also symbolic of the "citizen-participatory environmental activities" that gained momentum in the 1990s. Apart from large-scale institutional reforms and corporate-driven recycling policies, small attempts rooted in people's daily lives resonate with them, resulting in a balance between economic and environmental benefits. The lively voices of the people on the ground showed that the creation of a sustainable society is not a distant ideal, but rather something that sprouts from everyday life.