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children about the green economy. A new company recycles
waste into 4,000 tons of reusable polyethylene every year.
Kamikatsu, a picturesque, forested town in Tokushima
Prefecture, was the fi rst Japanese municipality to set a zero-
waste goal—all the way back in 2003. Over 80% of its waste
is now recycled. The city of Kyotango in Kyoto Prefecture
also has a long history of innovative green programs. Every
year a concert is held on Kotohiki Beach, a local tourist
attraction plagued by plastic waste, where the price of
admission is a piece of garbage collected from the beach.
Plastic is still too useful to ban completely, says Aiko
Okita of Jeplan, a company that recycles plastic bottles. But
perhaps Japan can tap back into its ancient cultural respect
for nature—embodied in the everyday phrase mottainai
(an admonition not to be wasteful). The tide against plastic
waste may be turning, says Yukari Takamura, a specialist
in environmental law at the University of Tokyo. Japan is
leveraging its sustainable past to build a better future.plastic is still disposed of in incinerators, laments Kenji Fuma,
founder and CEO of Tokyo-based environmental consulting
fi rm Neural. “Chemical recycling is the best way to achieve
the circular economy, but the second best is biodegradable
plastics” he says, citing the example of Kaneka PHBH, an
innovative biodegradable polymer that replaces virgin plastic
products.
The private sector is also seeking to ensure the long-term prospects of the global blue. In Japan, new businesses
making biodegradable materials are springing up. Aqura
Home, a Tokyo-based company that builds wooden houses,
has invented a wooden straw made from wood shavings
and trees felled in storms. Wasara makes tableware using
bamboo fi bre and bagasse, a fi bre derived from sugarcane,
which is harmlessly returned to the soil. Fukusuke Kogyo,
Japan’s largest maker of plastic shopping bags, is also
investing heavily in biodegradable plastics.
Local initiatives, national impact
Around Japan, local people are taking up the fi ght too. The
island of Tsushima, located halfway between Japan’s main
southern island of Kyushu and South Korea, is particularly
vulnerable to plastic waste because so much of it washes
up in currents from China and the Korean Peninsula. Local
residents collect waste in organised clean-ups. Schools teach
“The tide against plastic waste may be turning”
Yukari Takamura, a specialist in environmental law at the University of Tokyo