Biomass use in Ogawa Town, Saitama Prefecture and Aito Town, Shiga Prefecture - An early model of budding regional circulation - around 2004

Biomass use in Ogawa Town, Saitama Prefecture and Aito Town, Shiga Prefecture - An early model of budding regional circulation - around 2004

In the early 2000s, Japan adopted the "Biomass Nippon Comprehensive Strategy" (approved by the Cabinet in 2002), which focuses on the recovery, conversion, and local use of unused biomass, and in 2004 began promoting the formation of "biomass towns" led by local governments. With the Kyoto Protocol coming into effect in 2005, this was a time when the movement to implement both decentralized energy and resource recycling from the local level was gaining ground in many regions.

One symbolic example of this trend is the "Nanohana Eco Project" in the former Aito Town (now Aito District, Higashiomi City) in Shiga Prefecture, which began in 1998 as an effort to create an "oil loop" in the community by cultivating rapeseed, pressing the oil, using it for food, collecting waste cooking oil, and converting it into soap and biodiesel fuel (BDF). In 2005, the "Aito Eco-Plaza Nanohana-Kan" was established as a model for regional circulation, equipped with collection, refining, and learning functions. Today, the center continues to convert waste cooking oil collected from homes and schools into BDF and recycled soap, and together with the local rapeseed oil brand "Nanobiraku," visualizes the circulation.

Another good example is the town of Ogawa in Saitama Prefecture. In Ogawa-machi, a demonstration project to convert food scraps, paper waste, and other organic materials into resources through methane fermentation is progressing in tandem with the spread of organic agriculture, and the NPO "Ogawa-machi Climate Utilization Center" was selected in 2006 to operate a "locally produced biogas plant for 500 households in the town. The project was adopted by the NPO "Ogawa Town Climate Utilization Center" in FY2006. The project was innovative at the time in that it was designed with the participation of local residents to create a community-based cycle of food waste → biogas → power generation and heat utilization.

Since then, the town of Ogawa has continued its practice of "turning fuel and resources locally" by collecting waste cooking oil at its bases and recycling it into BDF and soap. In addition, the use of power generation facilities that use dry methane fermentation is progressing in a wide area, functioning as a circulatory infrastructure to reduce dependence on incineration. This system has become a foothold for the realization of the initial decentralized energy policy philosophy.

In summary, Aito Town and Ogawa Town have both quickly put into shape "regional circulation of oil" with rapeseed and waste cooking oil at the core, and "complex regional circulation" bundling food waste, used paper, and waste cooking oil, respectively. Both were "early models" in which local governments, NPOs, and residents collaborated to implement the decentralized and participatory direction set forth in the national strategy, and it can be said that these efforts anticipated the subsequent spread of biomass towns and regional recycling symbiosis zones.