No Waste in Japan

Kamikatsu, a town on Shikoku Island in South-East Japan has zero waste due to a recycling program which requires residents to sort their rubbish into 34 categories. These include: glass (in several colours) plastic, Styrofoam, plastic bottle tops, metal bottle tops, foil, plastic wrapping, steel cans, aluminum and shells (?).

This saves the city council money and means that the bin people never collect from residents of the island. However, a recent survey showed that 40% of people thought it was “all a bit of a pain”, but the council are unconcerned and feel it is the right thing to do!

A short BBC report, by environment analyst Roger Harrabin from, from Kamikatsu is viewable here: news.bbc.co.uk