Wasteland: Tokyo grows on its own trash

By Tim Hornyak

Tokyo’s waste management authorities have found increasingly creative ways to try to better manage waste. Now, they even have artificially made an island of waste. The plan is to cover half of the island with real soil to build parks and forest on top. As the author writes: ‘Future generations of Tokyoites will sun themselves here by the sea while relaxing on garbage’ (Hornyak, 2017).

This island is a result of waste processing regulations issued by the Tokyo government that declared a ‘war on garbage’. Waste processing happens in three stages. First, trash needs to be separated and collected. Secondly, the trash needs to be processed, which often means burnt in incinerators. Waste burning is heavily regulated by the government to prevent deadly toxins, such as dioxins to disperse. Another goal is to reuse everything coming from the incinerators. Heat, for example, that is produced as a by-product of burning waste is partly captured and converted into useful energy. The third stage is storing the unusable by-products, in the case of the island: ash. This last phase is very problematic as an ever increasing amount of space is needed. The island was precisely created for this purpose. The problem is that the landfills too will be full, in this case after 50 years and cannot be expanded as they will interfere with the course of ships. Thus, Tokyo’s officials need to continually search for new uses of waste.

Everything that the waste management authorities do, revolves around this sentence from the article: ‘We have to protect the environment for people living nearby’ (Hornyak, 2017). Firstly, this sentence shows that the scale is not Japan as a whole, but the population of Tokyo. Only the people in the vicinity matter. Secondly, it shows that nature is not something valuable in and of itself, but only in relation to people. It is something we should protect purely because it might otherwise hurt the health of the people of Tokyo. Thirdly, it shows that people have control over nature and ought to actively intervene. The article states that the production of waste has negative consequences and is not sustainable. It further explains that whatever waste is produced should be put to the best use possible and that we should limit the production of waste completely. Thus, the waste management authorities seem to be adopting a very anthropocentric viewpoint with regards to the environment.

The article points to the way in which Japan, but Tokyo specifically, manages the harmful effects of its waste processing which we can take to be green initiatives. With the burning of its rubbish, 3 main by-products are being produced, namely exhaust gas, ash and heat energy. Japan has national laws that govern the level of pollution of the exhaust gas produced from the incinerators. When it exceeds the limit, the plant building is stopped to “protect the environment for people living nearby” as said by the plant manager. Tokyo is trying to find new ways of putting ash to good use. Some sidewalks in Tokyo, for instance, are built with bricks made from ash. Lastly, the heat energy obtained from burning is being used to supply electricity and power to the plant facility. It is also being sold and provided to Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings and nearby communities. The article shows Japan to have consciously reviewed their disposal facilities, invest in incinerators with better technology and having successfully reduced pollution levels over the past decade.  

This article is an example of what Kirby in his reading on Sustainable Japan called “the government taking a bolder stand on sustainability and health through waste policy” (Kirby, 2011, p. 180). Similarly, we can draw the linkage that the government is especially sensitive to the local people. In Kirby’s reading, he mentions that “The Tokyo government agreed to pay the medical bills of residents who suffered from the the toxic gas” and “dealt with the chemical seepage” (Kirby, 2011, p. 185). Waste incineration should absolutely not affect the health of the residents living nearby. It is also interesting to note how at the beginning of the article it reflects on the island being made from garbage, coming across as a way to present Japan as green. However, from what we learn in class, it can be seen as part of an economic agenda and Japan’s way of appropriating “the notion of sustainability as a rallying cry” (Kirby, 2011, p. 162) to facilitate their economic nationalism through the ideas of conservation and responsibility. Hence, throughout the article, we should be conscious of the possible agenda behind such green sustainability. Yet, we also credit Japan for making an active effort to come up with new ways to deal with their waste and admitting to the risks that faces up to them in future.

Words: 783

References:

Kirby, P. W. (2011). Troubled natures: waste, environment, Japan. Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Press: 160-192.

Hornyak, T. (2017). Wasteland: Tokyo grows on its own trash. The Japan Times. [online] Available at: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2017/02/18/environment/wasteland-tokyo-grows-trash/#.W7w8DhMzb6Z [Accessed 18 Feb. 2017].