Containers and Packaging Recycling Law Enacted -First Step toward a "Recycling-Oriented Society" in Japan in the 1990s

Containers and Packaging Recycling Law Enacted -First Step toward a "Recycling-Oriented Society" in Japan in the 1990s
In June 1995, the Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging (Containers and Packaging Recycling Law) was enacted. This law aimed to reduce containers and packaging waste, which was estimated to account for more than 60% of the volume of garbage generated by households, and was enacted in stages beginning in 1997. This introduced the concept of "Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)" to Japan, whereby municipalities were responsible for sorted collection and companies were responsible for its recycling.
The background at that time was the waste disposal crisis that emerged from the end of the 1980s. In urban areas, final disposal sites were becoming increasingly tight, and it was reported that "Tokyo would no longer be able to dump its garbage in a few years. There were also movements against incineration facilities in many areas, and the government was under pressure to shift to a "recycling society. It was also a time when "environmental business" was beginning to attract attention as a new industrial field amid the recession that followed the bursting of the bubble economy, and the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law was a symbolic system.
When the law was first enacted, companies protested against having to bear the cost of recycling, but the Ministry of Health and Welfare (now the Ministry of the Environment) recognized the "structure in which the consumer ultimately bears the cost" and allowed adjustment through price shifting. This was the beginning of the concept later known as "environmental cost internalization.
This legal system was groundbreaking in that it was based on the premise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and collaboration between government and citizens. The passage of the Container Recycling Law was not merely a waste management measure, but also provided an opportunity to rethink the consumer society itself.
Since the start of the system, competition to develop recycling technologies has progressed, and the quality of recycled PET resin has been improved and the use of cullet (recycled glass) has been expanded. Municipalities began to enforce separate collection, and the "3Rs" (reduce, reuse, recycle) philosophy began to permeate both government and daily life. Thus, the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law of the mid-1990s marked a turning point in Japan's environmental policy, leading to the Basic Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (2000).