Japan – ongoing efforts to target household food waste

Japan faces an acute shortage of landfill sites. The Ministry of the Environment estimated at the end of fiscal 2001 that all of the nation‘‘s final disposal sites for non-industrial waste would be completely filled in 12.5 years. Encouraged partly by the enactment of the Food Recycling Law in 2001, various efforts have been made in Japanese households to reduce food waste, which accounts for 30 to 40 percent of non-industrial waste.



Japan for Sustainability reports that the most popular way of reducing food waste at home is by recycling it as compost. As many people live in apartments or houses with no backyards, indoor compost is in great demand. Two types of composters are popular: dry processing and bio-processing composters.



The dry type uses electricity to dehydrate the garbage into small flakes so that it can be disposed as "combustible garbage." The bio type utilizes microorganisms to convert the garbage into compost. Some processors create an environment favourable to microorganisms that then reduce the volume of the garbage, while creating virtually no odour.



Despite high interest in composters, annual shipments of indoor composters dropped to 76,000 units in 2003 from 191,000 in 2000. Manufacturers are in fierce competition to create better products that make less noise and door, as well as lower prices and better ways to treat the residues.



Apartment and condominium complexes sometimes have their own food waste disposal systems. They use built-in disposers under kitchen sinks that shred the waste and release it to the sewerage system after decomposition in special wastewater treatment equipment.



Shingoshu Co., a package material manufacturer based in Shiga Prefecture in western Japan, is developing a technology to produce bioethanol from waste paper and other materials by using a special kind of bacteria. Japan for Sustainability reports that the joint research is being conducted jointly with Ritsumeikan University, Kobe University and Energen, a company that develops and sells biomass energy. The initiative was selected by the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) in April 2004 as a designated project to curb global warming.



Since bioethanol is of plant origin, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted when it is blended with gasoline and burned is not counted as greenhouse gas emissions. Some countries have already been blending gasoline with bioethanol produced from such materials as sugar cane. In Japan, a blended fuel containing three-percent bioethanol was introduced in fiscal 2004. The MOE would like to see a nationwide supply system of blended fuels by 2012 and 10-percent bioethanol blended fuel in the future.



Production of bioethanol from sugar cane and corn is costly; it requires large facilities, and Japan would need to import the raw materials. In contrast, the technology currently under development uses waste paper that cannot otherwise be recycled, which makes it possible to reduce costs and to use resources effectively. The existing bioethanol manufacturing methods require much time and involve high costs for the processes of fermenting and distilling starch. By using a special kind of bacteria, the new technology can drastically shorten the processes.



Shingoshu is developing the technology, aiming to enter the market in 2007, and is expecting an annual production of 36,500 litres of bioethanol by 2012, which would mean an annual reduction of CO2 emissions by about 51,700 tons>ht>