This Japanese town plans to produce zero waste by 2020
Already, the town of Kamikatsu, home to 1,700 Japanese citizens, is recycling 80% of its waste. If all goes according to plan, that number will be 100% very soon.
The recycling program seems intense, with residents sorting their trash into 34 different categories. There is no trash pick-up, so residents take their trash and recyclables to the plant and drop it off. It seems like a lot, but as one resident says, "at first, we were opposed to the idea...Now I don’t think about it. It’s become natural to separate the trash correctly.”
Truly, the benefits of a wasteless society are innumerable.
The residents of Kamikatsu used to burn their trash in an open-air incinerator but noticed the devastating affect it was having on the environment and decided to make the change.
Neil Seldman, cofounder and president of the Institute for Local Self Reliance, reminds us that Kamikatsu is not the only near-trashless society. “Berkeley, California, which is several hundred thousand people, is close to 80 percent,” he says. “San Francisco reports 70 percent; and there are several cities in the U.S. that are over 70 percent. In Italy, they do it similarly to [Kamikatsu] where they have many different separations and drop off.”
He adds that, for the most part, these programs are run by grass roots efforts and not government. In Kamikatsu, the government takes control and runs the program. Businesses, for instance, are required, by law, to recycle.
Here is a short documentary on the city and the pioneering recycling program.