Waste & Recycling

With leaders from around the world as her audience, a young Japanese woman from Kamikatsu, Tokushima Prefecture, spoke about her small town’s “zero waste” initiatives, urging the globally influential audience to act to change society.

Japanese biotechnology startup Green Earth Institute is set to expand into Southeast Asia with plans to manufacture petrochemical substitutes from biomass.

The government decided Friday to ban in principle the use of plastic straws and cutlery in its cafeterias and to stop passing out plastic bottles to conference attendees — its latest policy on environmentally friendly procurement.

The rapid economic development experienced across Southeast Asia has created a serious garbage problem, as growing volumes of rubbish highlight a shortage of disposal sites.

Akira Sakano, the 29-year-old head of an environmental nonprofit organization based in Tokushima Prefecture, is serving as one of the eight co-chairs of the annual World Economic Forum being held in Davos, Switzerland.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was to express his intention to seek an international agreement on the reduction of plastic waste in his keynote speech at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday morning, according to sources.

Like many Tokyoites, Miki Takara, 53, was sipping beer and indulging in specially prepared delicacies at a bar on a recent Friday evening. But something made this scene in Tokyo’s western city of Musashino a bit different: At this bar, the only thing separating her from a concrete waste pit was a single pane of glass.

Japanese companies are pouring investment into plastic recycling facilities to handle the rise in bottles and used home electronics remaining in the country following China's near-total ban on imports of plastic waste.

Japan is increasingly rethinking its use of plastic as the fight against marine pollution is spreading worldwide.

A decade-old community effort in Nagoya to recycle food waste from supermarkets and school lunches to make compost for vegetable farming has been awarded the Biodiversity Action Award by the Japan Committee for United Nations Decade on Biodiversity (UNDB).

One morning earlier this month, a special garbage truck arrived at the parking lot of the Kakuozan Frante supermarket in Chikusa Ward. There, scraps of Chinese cabbage, Japanese white radish and other vegetables generated by the presale cutting process were thrown in.