I just read that Kamikatsu, a village on an island in southwest Japan, is on track to reach Zero Waste by 2020. Residents voluntarily wash their refuse and deliver it to Zero Waste Academy, where it is separated into 34 categories by staff members. Last year, the town recycled 192 tons of garbage and incinerated another 135 tons. Their goal for 2020 is to reach Zero Waste with no incineration. While Vermont environmental groups (understandably) reject the concept of trash-to energy by incineration, they are fully behind the Zero Waste movement, a particular focus of Toxics Action Center. I know there are areas of the US where recycling does not occur and people here in Vermont who don’t see the point. Here’s the point: we can not keep stockpiling our garbage in plastic bags and throwing it into holes in the ground where it will sit for centuries or millennia, leaching toxins into our soil and eventually into our water. We all need to do our part to reduce our garbage footprint in our country and on our planet.
Showing posts with label zero waste in a Japanese village. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zero waste in a Japanese village. Show all posts
Sunday, June 20, 2010
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