"A Town Echoing with the Calls of Ash Buyers: Edo’s Recycling Society and a Circular Way of Life"

"A Town Echoing with the Calls of Ash Buyers: Edo’s Recycling Society and a Circular Way of Life" Towns during the Edo period resembled what we today call a circular economy. This text describes how paper, metal, barrels, used clothing, ash, and even human waste were collected and reused. Repairmen and collectors roamed the streets, and people did not throw away broken items but instead repaired them and used them until the very end. The modern notion that “something becomes trash the moment it is no longer needed” simply did not exist back then. In Edo towns, scrap paper dealers collected used paper, ash collectors gathered ash, and even human waste was transported to rural areas to be used as fertilizer. Unwanted items generated in the city were transformed into new resources in the countryside, eventually returning to the city as food. A quiet cycle of circulation existed between the city and the countryside. Additionally, metal repairers and craftsmen who mended barrels and tubs were active. A culture of continuing to use items by repairing them, rather than discarding them simply because they were broken, was deeply rooted in society. In that context, the skill of repair itself was a vital occupation that supported daily life. Of course, this circular society was not a choice made from a position of affluence and consumerism. It was precisely because resources were scarce and imports were limited that people had no choice but to use things until they were completely worn out. However, within that inconvenience lay the wisdom to ask, “Before throwing it away, can’t I use it one more time?” Modern circular societies, too, cannot be sustained by recycling technology alone. Systems are needed to support those who collect, repair, and reuse items. The towns of the Edo period were sustained not by technology to reduce waste, but by a culture of circulating goods.