Teshima and Naoshima (Kagawa Prefecture) - Illegal Dumping Waste Disposal Project and Its Historical Background

Teshima and Naoshima (Kagawa Prefecture) - Illegal Dumping Waste Disposal Project and Its Historical Background
The large-scale illegal dumping of industrial waste on Teshima Island in the Seto Inland Sea (located in the town of Tonosho, Kagawa Prefecture) became a symbolic event in the history of environmental problems in Japan. The waste continued to be piled up in open piles and landfilled without proper treatment. In 1990, a resident filed a complaint, which became a problem, and in 2000, after a lengthy legal battle, Kagawa Prefecture reached a settlement with Teshima, taking over the entire waste management.

In 2003, a concrete treatment plan based on the settlement was in the works. The Ministry of the Environment approved Kagawa Prefecture's treatment plan and decided to subsidize it to the tune of approximately 10 billion yen. Approximately 510,000 tons of shredded automobile scrap was to be transported to an intermediate treatment facility in the neighboring town of Naoshima, where it would be safely disposed of through incineration and melting. This facility will begin full-scale operation in September 2003, with a long-term plan to complete the disposal by fiscal 2012.

The background to this plan is the historical situation in the 1990s, when illegal dumping of industrial waste became a social problem in many parts of Japan after the collapse of the bubble economy, and the Basic Environment Law (1993) and the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law were strengthened. In 2001, the Ministry of the Environment was created as part of a reorganization of central ministries and agencies, and the Ministry of the Environment was being strengthened to deal with waste issues along with global warming countermeasures. Internationally, the Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-based Society (2000) and recycling-related laws were being developed, and there was a growing trend to rethink waste as a resource rather than simply a disposal target.

The Teshima Incident was a national project positioned during the transition to a recycling-oriented society. It became a symbolic case of cooperation among local governments, the national government, companies, and residents to resolve the negative legacy of illegal dumping of industrial waste, and had a major impact on subsequent environmental policies and stricter waste disposal in Japan.