Recycling in Japan now comes at a price

TOKYO - Japanese consumers buying televisions, washing machines or air conditioners will now have to pay to get rid of the replaced items as Japan struggles with the growing rubbish that is choking public dumps.

From next week, it will cost 2,400 yen (S$35) to recycle a washing machine, 2,700 yen for a television, 3,500 yen per air conditioner and up to 4,600 yen for a refrigerator. Additional collection fees will vary from district to district.

These four items alone account for 80 per cent of consumer electrical sales in a huge market worth 2.5 trillion yen. The same four products also generate about 600,000 tonnes of rubbish a year.

It is estimated that within 10 years all of Japan's landfills will be overflowing, and there is no space to create more dumps, according to the Environment Ministry.

The government's answer has been to spread the burden for recycling such items among the consumer, who will pay to get rid of them, the retailer, to collect them, and the manufacturer, for the actual recycling of up to 60 per cent of the unwanted product.

But even if they accept the underlying environmental soundness of the principle, manufacturers have given the new policy a cool reception.

'For sure, these new regulations will increase our costs and could depress sales,' warned Mr Junji Kanegawa, spokesman for Matsushita Electric Industrial, Japan's leading consumer electricals manufacturer.

Many consumers have chosen to avoid the new charges by dumping old appliances before the regulations come into force. --AFP