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 serious waste crisis. In Nagoya, it was estimated that the three final disposal sites in the city had only two years of life remaining, and a realistic sense of crisis spread that the city would be buried under garbage. The structure of mass consumption that has persisted since the period of high economic growth and the difficulty of securing landfill sites were the backdrop, forcing the government to take drastic measures.

The City of Nagoya therefore issued a "Declaration of Garbage Emergency" and strongly urged citizens and businesses to thoroughly separate recyclable garbage. This declaration was epoch-making in that it was not only an administrative initiative, but also an opportunity to systematically encourage citizen participation; a one-week survey showed that city-collected waste was down 5.1% from the previous year, and business-collected waste was down 15.91%, for an overall reduction of about 8.7%, confirming immediate results.

This effort was supported by the existence of related technologies that were advancing at the same time. First, a resource recycling route for PET bottles, cans, and paper cartons had begun to be developed, based on the sorting and collection system that became widespread following the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law (enacted in 1995). In addition, recycling plant technologies such as crushing and sorting equipment, optical sorting machines, and magnetic sorting machines were introduced, dramatically increasing the efficiency of converting waste into resources.

In addition, composting facilities and biogas treatment technologies for treating food waste had been put to practical use, and efforts to convert organic waste from households and businesses into fertilizers and energy sources had begun. In addition, manufacturers and retailers were voluntarily adopting returnable containers and simplified packaging to reduce emissions of business-related waste.

In this way, the "Declaration of a Refuse Emergency" is an example of the combination of a change in public awareness and the diffusion of the latest recycling and treatment technologies. Nagoya's experience served as a model case of how to address environmental issues faced by a city by integrating institutions, citizen participation, and technological innovation, and has become a cornerstone for future recycling-oriented society policies.