Food Waste in Japan – Some interesting reflections on biowaste from Japan for Sustainability.

Every year, Japan produces about 400 million tons of industrial waste and about 50 million tons of household and general commercial waste. Of the household and general commercial waste, about 20 million tons consist of food waste. This is six times the weight of used-newspaper waste and four times that of discarded automobiles.



Out of 20 million tons of food waste, 18 per cent is produced at the “processing and manufacturing” stage, about 30 per cent is commercial waste from food distribution channels and restaurants, and the remaining 52 per cent is from households. This means that, every year, Japanese households produce about 10 million tons of food waste, equivalent to annual rice consumption in Japan.



Now, how much food waste is being recycled? For food waste from the “processing and manufacturing” stage, 48 per cent is recycled. Examples of this include feeding pigs fresh bean curd pressings that are b-yproducts after making tofu.



On the other hand, most food waste from the “distribution” stage is not recycled. Examples include unsold food at supermarkets and lunch boxes and hamburger meat that have passed the expiration date at convenience stores. This is mostly incinerated and sent to landfills.



Under Japan’s Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Based Society, which entered into force in January 2003, the Food Recycling Law took effect in June of the same year. This law’s aims are to reduce the amount of food waste generated by food manufacturers and restaurants, and to promote the reuse of food waste such as by turning it into livestock feed and compost.



Pressed into action by this law, an increasing number food manufacturers and restaurants are working to use food waste as compost. One of those initiatives is by the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo. This hotel previously had a contractor deal with the waste, but today turns not only food waste such as banquet hall leftovers but also used flowers from hotel wedding ceremonies into compost in a composting facility set up below the hotel.



The compost is used by farmers contracted to grow vegetables, which are then purchased by the hotel. The hotel was able to save the costs it once paid to a waste management company, and recovered the cost of the new in-house composting facility in about three years. There are an increasing number of initiatives like this around the country to create a circular flow of materials between producer and consumer.



Seiyu, a major supermarket chain, was able to reduce the amount of unsold food disposed by about 18 percent just in a year, through such measures as more careful procurement to avoid waste, as well as making unsold food available for employees to purchase before its expiration date, as “ecological discount products.”



These efforts have led not only to a reduction of food waste but also to cost reductions. In Japan, where waste disposal sites are running out and disposal costs increasing every year, this kind of waste reduction initiative is being pursued in earnest as a cost reduction strategy at many corporations and factories.



Seibu Department Stores Recycle Food Waste

http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=9&dp=data_e.html



FamilyMart to Adopt On-Site Microwave Disposer for Food Waste

http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=224&dp=data_e.html



Food Delivery Truck to Collect Vegetable Waste

http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=232&dp=data_e.html



However, food made or grown in Japan supplies only 40 per cent of the nation’ s food consumption (calorie base), so the supply of compost made from food waste will always exceed demand. Therefore, there are an increasing number of initiatives to turn food waste into energy, for which Japan’s self-sufficiency rate is a mere 20 per cent.



For example, at several large shopping centres, food waste generated at food corners and restaurant