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Author(s): T. Okayama & M. Yagishita
Abstract:
Japan legislated the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law in 1995; the law
was put into effect gradually and became effective totally in 2000.
In this law,
each municipality can choose how many items they collect for recycling, so that
not all the municipalities in Japan collect all containers and packaging still now.
In particular, big cities whose populations are more than 1 million can not collect
all items, because the cost for recycling all items is too much and they do not
have appropriate recycling routes.
This study examines the effect on the reduction of the amount of waste and on
the environmental effects by the method of Material Flow Analysis and Life
Cycle Assessment, through Nagoya city practices.
Nagoya city has a population
of more than 2 million.
In the city, the law has been in force since 2000.
Nagoya
city is only one big city that collects all items of containers and packaging in
Japan.
So it is important to study Nagoya practice to evaluate the success of the
law.
Accordingly, the surveys of material flow and discharge amount of CO2 and
NOx were made in the years 1998 and 2001, then each year’s data was
compared.
By the study, it is observed that the amount of municipal waste discharge
reduced by more than 266,000 ton and the amount of landfill reduced to almost
half after enforcement of the law.
On the other hand, the amount of collected
containers and packaging gained 63,002 ton, and it multiplied about 3 times.
Considering the environmental impact from the waste management system of
Nagoya city including containers and packaging recycling, the amount of total
discharge of CO2 and NOx reduced by more than 34%.
Therefore, the effects on
the environment obviously improved.
The law has accelerated the separating of
containers and packaging from the waste going to landfill, and it not only has
reduced the amount of waste but also has changed the contents of waste going
for incinerating, causing more reduction of landfill.
As a result, it clearly shows
that the recycling based on the law has succeeded in reducing both the amount of
waste going to landfill sites and the environmental effects.
Keywords:
the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, material flow analysis,
life cycle assessment.
...
Pages: 9
Size: 349 kb
Paper DOI: 10.2495/WMJ040181
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