Environment Nagoya City "Declaration of Garbage Emergency" - Citizen Participation and Technological Innovation Starting from a Crisis 1999

Environment Nagoya City "Declaration of Garbage Emergency" - Citizen Participation and Technological Innovation Starting from a Crisis 1999

At the end of the 1990s, Japan's urban areas were facing a rapidly expanding waste problem. In Nagoya, the city's three final disposal sites were estimated to have a remaining life of only two years, and the city was facing the real danger of being buried under garbage. In addition to the negative effects of the mass consumption of society since the period of rapid economic growth, the situation was exacerbated by the difficulty of securing new disposal sites. Against this backdrop, the city issued an unprecedented "Declaration of a Trash Emergency," calling on citizens and businesses to thoroughly separate trash. This declaration symbolized a policy shift that went beyond conventional government-led measures and was based on citizen participation.

A survey conducted one week after the proclamation was issued showed that city-collected waste was reduced by 5.1% from the previous year, and business-collected waste was reduced by 15.91%, for a total reduction of approximately 8.7%, which was an immediate result. The fact that such an effect was achieved in such a short period of time demonstrated the potential for citizens and businesses to share an awareness of the crisis and to rapidly change their behavior. At the same time, sorted collection and recycling systems for PET bottles, cans, and paper packs were being developed based on the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law (enacted in 1995), and recycling plant technologies such as optical and magnetic sorting machines were also being introduced. These technological innovations were factors that increased the effectiveness of the declaration.

In addition, composting facilities and biogas converters were used to convert food scraps into resources, and business-oriented efforts to curb emissions, such as returnable containers and simplified packaging, were expanded. The Nagoya case became a model for the formation of a recycling-oriented society by linking the crisis to a change in public awareness and the introduction of technology.