**Waste Disposal Throne and Tightrope Walking Era Late 1990s to around 2000**.

**Waste Disposal Throne and Tightrope Walking Era Late 1990s to around 2000**.

Becoming the owner of a final disposal site was considered the ultimate dream in the industrial waste industry at the time. Those who started with a single dump truck and acquired a huge landfill were praised for their ambition and called "champions. The reality, however, was far from secure. The construction of the repository required an investment of several to ten billion yen, as well as a heavy burden of land acquisition, local measures, administrative consultation, long-term management after closure, and compensation for environmental accidents. The background to this is the fact that the increase in waste during the period of high economic growth and the bubble economy did not decrease even after the burst of the bubble economy, and the shortage of disposal sites became serious. 1991 saw the revision of the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law, which made it extremely difficult to obtain new permits due to a combination of tighter regulations and opposition by local
residents. During this period, stable, controlled, and isolated types were established, and construction costs soared with the introduction of technologies such as impervious sheets, leachate treatment facilities, and observation wells. On the other hand, the stable type could be constructed at a low cost, making it possible for small-scale contractors to take advantage of the opportunities. 1999's illegal dumping incident at the Aomori-Iwate border shook the public, and instances where licensed disposal sites were no different from illegal dumping sites were called into question. As regulations and practices struggled with each other, the industry continued to search for technologies to reduce environmental impact, and the throne continued to be a symbol of both light and shadow.