Waste management in Tokyo

This is some article I wrote about waste management in Tokyo.

Abstract: Tokyo is a megacity where 13 million people live and commute to work. The paper examines waste management system in Tokyo and illustrates its weakness and strengths by analyzing case studies. The waste management in Tokyo goes back to Edo era, and it has a long history of supporting local communities.

 1. Over view of Tokyo/ City Profile 
The city Tokyo is a megacity where 13 million people live and commute to work. Tokyo is consisted of 23 individual municipal authorities. Tokyo is the heart of Japan, where major political, administrative and economic activities are carried out. Although Tokyo is the one of the highly populated city with the GFP of 85,201.6 as of 2011 (Rec international, 2016), it is known for its environmental consciousness and high quality of hygiene. Statistically countries in development stage produce a lot of waste, but Tokyo produces relatively small waste compare to many other countries such as the U.S. (Rec international, 2016), This is mainly because Tokyo has been taken distinctive measures to overcome public health or environmental challenges. This paper examines waste management system in Tokyo and illustrates its weakness and strengths by analyzing case studies.

2. Waste management background
Tokyo’s waste management has a long history, and it has been environmentally friendly for over decades. Tokyo’s waste management history can be divided in to five eras: Meiji Restoration era (late 19th to 20th centuries), post-war period (1945-1950s), rapid economic growth period (1960s to 1970s), rapid economic growth period to the bubble economy period (1980s to early 1990s), era of the establishment of a sound material-cycle society. According to Hoshino (2008), the city’s waste management action has been dramatically improved between 1919 and 1936, when the mayor offered contrasting sanitation schemes and the rule of law was strengthened. According to Tokyo metropolitan government, city’s waste volume had dramatically increased since 1985 due to lifestyle change. Compared to recent success level of 2,950,000tons, the waste volume reached 4,900,000tons in 1989.

 3. The main procedure and function of the waste management 
The major waste management procedure starts with collection, transport, intermediate processing; landfill then ends with covering operation. In this section of the paper illustrates details of the process. The city of Tokyo’s waste collection method used to be carried by a hand-cart, now the city collect waste by trucks. Currently, there are about 1500 waste collective vehicles in 340,000 waste collection stations. 70 % of those collection vehicles are small-sized, and it compresses waste with small turning cycle equipment in the back of the truck (Rec International, 2014, slide 15). In Tokyo, all 23 wards collect general waste separately by four main components: Recyclable waste, Combustible waste, Non-combustible waste, Bulky waste. Plastic waste not suitable for recycling was classified as noncombustible, but due to advanced technology, plastic waste has been classified as combustible and used for energy recovery (Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Unknown). There are about 21 waste processing facilities in Tokyo (Rec International, 2014, Slide 16). The incineration plants in Tokyo are unique in five ways: its low gas emissions, waste treatment capacity, long service life, stable operation and high power generation capacity. First, the average measured value of dioxins is 0.000019ng-TEQ/m3N, which is about 1000times less than emission standard value (Rec International 2014, slide 19). Second, daily treatment capacity of the facility is about 7,580 tons (in Fiscal Year 2012) this means the facility is very capable of reducing the volume of waste. Third, operation service is about 25 to 30 years, which is 10-15 years longer than general life span. With occasional inspection and repair, Tokyo’s waste incineration plant enabled strong life span. Fourth, due to advanced automation, incineration plant achieved stable 24-hour operation. Lastly, total power produced by the incineration plant is 1.1B kWh, and its revenue is 6.3billion yen (approximately 62.5 million U.S. dollars) (Rec International 2014, slide 19). The wastewater created in the landfill site is collected and after the quality of wastewater is adjusted it goes into wastewater treatment plant. Although many parts of the world still damp wastewater to the sea either directly or indirectly, Tokyo’s wastewater will be disposed at the final disposal site (Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Unknown, slide 4). There are five main fundamental laws related to recycling in Japan including the law for the promotion of effective utilization of resources, container and packaging recycling law, home appliance recycling law, construction waste recycling law, food recycling law and ELV (End-of-Life Vehicles) recycling law (Metropolitan Government, Unknown). Since the law has been enacted, residents of Tokyo, including private sectors had to be obliged to the rule of law, and there are several successful cases. For instance, the amount of general waste was reduced down to 4.45million tons in 2005 compared to the highest rate of 6.13million tons in 1989. Some wastes are harmful to the environment or humans such as medical waste, nuclear waste, and other contagious waste. Toxic and contagious waste are first burned in an incinerator and completely melted in melting facilities. Then they are sterilized with high-pressure steam followed b dry gear sterilizer. The land-fill mechanism used to be very popular in Japan. The city of Tokyo used to directly disposed large-sized waste until around 1970s. Now, Tokyo uses landfill as effective waste management strategy till today; the city has set a goal not to relay on landfill. The issue of the landfill is it is not a sustainable option for long term, but it is an only affordable option in many countries. Land-fill waste in Tokyo mainly composed of plastic, ash and other material by volume and weight. Before those goes into the final disposal, the city has planned recycling scheme to reuse them as renewable resource and energy. With new recycling scheme, the city aims for zero final disposal. 

 4. Goal & Outcome 
Tokyo government once set a goal to reduce final disposal of the fiscal year 2010 into 1.6 million tons, yet actual disposal in 2010 was 4.8 million tons. The municipal government has set attainable goals so far, yet those wishful goals have not been met. 5. Importance/effectiveness of waste management Waste management is very important regarding protecting the quality of life, health, and an environment. Also regarding natural hazard protection, well-constructed waste management can prevent public health catastrophe. 6. Management system: (1) How it works The main protocol for waste management requires following: Influence policy and measures for waste prevention and reduction determine capacity and some collection vehicles and or transfer stations, assess feasibility and scale of the treatment option, identify recycling opportunities, estimate the lifespan of a landfill, estimate trends to plan for the future. In general, generation rate is determined by lifestyle, urbanization, and income. Hence there needs to be professional involvement to estimate financial cost, human recourse and natural capacity for waste management. 

 (2) Cost Collection and disposal are the major part of waste disposal cost. The cost of collection significantly varies from city to another. In order to sustain the waste management, lowering the cost of collection and transfer is the key. Also, lower cost means using larger containers, larger trucks, reduced number of collection points and organize/maintain the collection points. 

5. Strengths and Weakness in each waste management process: Case studies The Tokyo’s strength lays in highly efficient and effective running scheme and cooperation among communities, a public and private sector in working together as one entity. In this section, strength of Tokyo will be explained by looking at each stage of waste management: The city of Tokyo has been focusing on reducing the waste by sorting waste at source and advocating the importance of recycling to the public. Environmental education is implemented even in kindergarten level so that each feels responsible for environmental protection. Tokyo’s waste management strength also lays on its efficient collection and transport mechanism. All the collection of waste is done within a day, and collection rate is 100%. For elder residents who cannot place the waste in the collection sight, there is a service to visiting them at their doors (Rec International 2014, slide 11). The city of Tokyo is also proud of its safe incineration technology and energy generation utilizing thermal recycling technology. Although incineration does not have a positive image because of pollutant emission, this problem can be solved by adopting appropriate exhaust treatment system, and initial cost can be covered by energy generation (Rec International 2014, slide 15). Tokyo’s incineration improves the environment and sanitary condition. Since volume reduction is over 90%, there are mass treatment possibility and capacity. Tokyo’s landfill sight is created on the sea surface and reclaimed land after the end of service life is used for various facilities. The waste management planning involves professional expertise from different disciplines to create a solid plan for vehicle or staff allocation for collection or transportation routes. Also, professionals estimate waste volume, decide on disposal rules while taking consideration of population density and unexpected man-made error. The city of Tokyo has clear institutional responsibilities among public sector agencies. Furthermore, the city’s waste management is supported by the community but safe from political maneuvers. The city has set solid anti-solution measures and continued an open dialogue with the local community to meet resident’s environmental concern and expectation. Incineration construction is not all atrocious idea to neighboring residents since incineration enables power, heat and hot water generation to be provided for free or for a reasonable price. Although many might think Tokyo’s model is not versatile, it is versatile the case of Tokyo’s waste management has been studied and carried out in many places of South East Asia. The city of Tokyo’s waste management is disaster resilient. Hence even the large-scale earthquake of flood occurred in the area, the incineration and other waste facilities are well prepared. 

 < Area of Improvement > Although Tokyo’s waste management has very significant strength and unique advantage, there still are needs for further development regarding innovative, adaptive and appropriate measurement for waste management related market creation. First, despite all the efforts, an overall waste reduction has not been achieved. Even though Tokyo has achieved drastic recycle rates yet overall consumption and waste creation have not been reduced. Since the city of Tokyo’s population will continue to grow due to urbanization and economic development, the city needs to work on regulation and advocacy in eliminating overall waste volume. Also, Tokyo is one of the cities which has the high volume of food waste. There have no particular corporative schemes to reduce food waste in Tokyo even though some large city such as London or New York city has set some goals. A major source of food waste comes from food service industries. Hence there need to be stricter regulations and changing of consumer behavioral change. Second, although most of the plastic has been recycled, many plastic waste disposals still relays on direct land-fill. Also, Japan exports a lot of used plastic to oversea as a part of a recycling scheme. Hence overall reduction of plastic waste has not been achieved. In order to achieve the total reduction, the city needs a five-year plan. Third, construction sludge must be reused or reduced. Much of construction sludge has been ended up in the land-fill and construction sludge consists of 53.8% of final industrial waste disposal. Forth, harmful waste should be treated within the city. Tokyo now relays on 40% of harmful and toxic waste treatment to external prefectures. Those toxic chemicals include fugitive asbestos waste, contagious waste, and PCB waste. The city of Tokyo needs to construct proper equipment and capacity to disinfect and process those harmful wastes in the future. Fifth, unlawful dumping should be eliminated and regulated. Reported incidents of illegal industry waste dumping reached to 159 cases and reached about 29000 ton in 2013, and the number of cases has reduced recently but yet to be eliminated completely. In order to reduce unlawful industry waste dumping, there needs to be harsher punishment and cooperative mechanism for industries to decompose waste legally. Sixth, engage and promote recycle businesses. Due to today’s market scheme limitation, small-scale ventures had not gained competitive business scheme. Illegal dumping, for instance, can be carried out because of lack of the innovative mechanism to properly decompose waste by reasonable price. Although recycling and waste processing businesses are such important industry to protect the environment, they have not gained proper recognition nor reputation due to lack of understanding. Hence, the cooperative mechanism such as government subsidies should be implemented to sustainable business creation.

 5. Future Projection 
Having weakness and strength, the city of Tokyo projects for future development in areas mentioned below: (1) Intensive utilization of recyclable resources and securing them (2) Creation of a socio-economic system designed to promote “reduce and reuse.” (3) Use recyclable and biomass resources s energy sources (4) Promotion of international initiatives The city of Tokyo has been projecting for future “super-eco town” project, in order to achieve reduce industrial waste and develop eco-friendly industries within Tokyo. In order to achieve greater impact, social engagement is necessary. 

6. Summary/ Conclusion 
Tokyo municipality government focuses on following areas: sustainability cost effectiveness and versatilities. (1) Sustainability (2) Cost effectiveness (3) Versatilities of the waste management is also an important feature since this waste management system can be used anywhere.