A ‘Zero Waste’ city is one that aims to shrink its waste production and reduce its carbon consumption with the incentive to generate ideal housing, living and working conditions for its population. This ambitious goal is achieved by implementing renewable practices and omitting any undesired carbon emissions. The Kamikatsu town in Japan is an embodiment of these ideals and has declared ‘Zero Waste’ as its main objective.
Concealed in the towering mountain ranges of Japan’s Shikoku Island, the Kamikatsu town has for two decades been on the path to ‘Zero Waste’. This is done so by promoting ideal consumership and informed consumption of everyday resources among its roughly 1500 inhabitants. The town’s population varies from older inhabitants to youth and children, however the aged population generally dominates these numbers with the town housing multitudinous seniors above the age of 65 years.
Some methods adopted by the municipality include recycling and reusing household products, residents themselves transport the household waste to trash collection facilities and volunteers do the same for the aged population. The town has also established a recycle-based thrift shop called the ‘Kuru-Kuru’ thrift shop which receives and sells items donated by locals in their original or recycled form. Locals can pick up items from this thrift shop free of cost and are just required to weigh these items ,this in-turn promotes recycle culture in the municipality, provoking locals to donate unwanted household items in the shop.
The talk of the town however, and the major reason the town is talked about is the Zero Waste Center located at the heart of the town. The town’s residents accumulate their household waste emissions and sort it into 45 categories which are then tossed into the centrally located incinerators. The town also ensures that the incinerators meet emission standards by shutting down one of its malfunctioning incinerators to meet emission requirements. The system of sorting waste is so efficient that the town has 9 ways to sort paper products alone. The structure of the zero waste center perfectly illustrates the town’s zero waste ethos by incorporating wood locally sourced from Kamikatsu’s indigenous forests and windows designed from left-over materials of previous establishments .
The Kamikatsu town is truly the epitome of sustainable living and acts as the source of inspiration for other towns and cities worldwide willing to adopt a waste-free routine. It embraces methods such as recycling, reusing and repurposing to drive its inhabitants to embrace the ideals of zero waste. Apart from Kamikatsu, 25 cities worldwide have committed to ‘zero waste’ and with the rapidly advancing standard of living the numbers should go through the roof in no time.
