Japan the dump site

By Hau Boon Lai
STRAITS TIMES JAPAN BUREAU

• 18m home appliances junked in a year
    
• Only 9m pieces end up in recycling centres

Despite a recycling law, illegal dumping is on the rise with nine million appliances thrown in the mountains and the ocean

TOKYO - Even with a recycling law in place, Japan saw nine million units of major household appliances being dumped illegally in the mountains and the ocean in the past year.

Reports abound about such appliances turning up in fishermen's nets and floating in rivers.

Barely coping with the influx of such appliances are centres such as Matsushita Eco Recycling Centre where dismantled units lie ready for processing. -- HAU BOON LAI

Police have also arrested 100 persons in the past 12 months under the Garbage Disposal Act for trying to dump such appliances near train stations.

Environmental woes resulting from affluence are not mitigated in Japan despite its 37 recycling centres.

These centres, built by manufacturers to handle their own products as demanded by the Home Appliances Recycling Law enacted last April, can process tens of thousands of major appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions and washing machines, in a day.

But while this rate is impressive, the centres can hardly cope because in the past year nine million items came into their yards.

Considering that another nine million were dumped illegally elsewhere, the centres are tackling only half of the problem.

Under the law, consumers fork out 4,600 yen (S$64), 3,500 yen, 2,700 yen and 2,400 yen respectively to have a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a television and a washing machine recycled.

But at certain times, such items tend to pour in, creating backlogs beyond the recycling centres' capacity to clear.

Meanwhile, unscrupulous dumpers see vast profits in the new law. Pretending to be official collectors, they pocket the consumers' fees but dump the disposed items in the woods, mountains or the sea.

Thousands of bogus collectors get away with such acts, and official statistics show that illegal dumping, despite the law, is on the rise.

Government estimates put the number of dumped appliances in the past year at 100,000. However, the unofficial estimate is closer to nine million as the police and ministry officials only covered accessible areas such as those near train stations.

Manufacturers such as Matsushita believe the answer to reducing garbage is easy-to-recycle products.

At the Matsushita Eco Technology Centre (Metec) in Yashiro city, Hyogo prefecture, small groups of researchers meet every day to disassemble products which have yet to enter the market to see how they can help speed the recycling process.

'By involving recycling engineers in product planning, we can make products which are much easier to dismantle and recycle,' said Metec president Nobutaka Tsutumi.

The 5-billion-yen start-up company is one of Japan's largest high-tech recycling centres. It can handle one million appliances and has achieved a recycling rate 10-15 per cent higher than the 50-60 per cent demanded by the law.