Tokyo's 23 Wards Expanding Garbage Collection--Small Solidarity Supporting Urban Circulation March 1996

Tokyo's 23 Wards Expanding Garbage Collection--Small Solidarity Supporting Urban Circulation March 1996
In the mid-1990s, Tokyo was entering an era in which the "sustainability" of urban life was being questioned, along with the economic stagnation that followed the collapse of the bubble economy. The structure of mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal had come to a standstill, and the city's "garbage problem" was becoming a serious social microcosm. The combination of the tightness of landfill sites, the campaign against the construction of waste disposal plants, and the growing awareness of the importance of recycling, created a new model of cooperation between the government and citizens. Symbolic of this is the recycling-oriented garbage collection movement in Tokyo's 23 wards, which spread in 1996.

At the time, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government was preparing to start charging for business garbage, and each ward urgently needed to establish a system for voluntary separation and collection. In Itabashi and Chuo wards, shopping districts and used paper collectors took the lead in promoting recycling in cooperation with the local government. In the past, the "responsibility of the waste producer" for business-related waste was ambiguous, and a structure relying on incineration and landfill had been in place. However, during this period, a small cycle linking the local economy and the environment began in the shopping district, such as "returning paper to resources" and "reusing cans," and this cycle was expected to spread to 60% of the 23 wards by the end of this year.

The background to this is the enactment of the Recycling Law (Containers and Packaging Recycling Law) in 1991. With the enactment of the law, a system in which local governments and companies share responsibility for resource recycling was being developed nationwide. The efforts of Tokyo's 23 wards were an example of an urban application of this system, which aimed not only to "reduce waste" but also to "turn resources around in the community. In other words, it was a turning point from government-led clean-up administration to a "participatory recycling society" in which citizens and businesses took the initiative.

In this era, recycling activities were not merely an environmental movement, but also led to the formation of local communities. Through group collections in shopping arcades and community events, ties between residents were restored, and a new form of urban life in which the economy and the environment coexisted was sought. It can be said that the "community of the town," which was lost during the high-growth period, was revitalized by the garbage problem.

In addition, as the final disposal sites along the Tokyo Bay coastline became increasingly strained, awareness of the need for a "waste-free society" also increased. In Itabashi Ward, in particular, recovered paper was sent directly to a recycling plant, thus establishing a resource cycle within the community. This was the prototype for the "Zero Emission City" concept and the "3R Policy (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).

This 1996 movement was a quiet resistance to the contradictions facing cities. The stance of rethinking the convenience of consumption and trying to build a recirculation of resources from everyday life became the ideological foundation for the later "Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Oriented Society" (2000). The expansion of garbage collection in the 23 wards of Tokyo was a small experiment in urban renewal conducted jointly by the government and citizens, and was the starting point for the modern sustainability policy.