The efforts being undertaken to reduce garbage in a small town in Tokushima Prefecture "Zero Waste Movement" is attracting attention from all over the world now

Located in the mountains of Tokushima PrefectureKamikatsu-choIs to reduce garbage "Zero-Waste MovementWe have been working since 2003 and are working on various ideas to reduce garbage. That movement has also attracted attention from the world, for example, the overseas YouTube channel "Great Big Story"Is spotlighting the zero / waist movement in Kamikatsu-cho with the following movie.

Japan's Town With No Waste - YouTube


Tokushima-ken Katsuura-gun Kamikatsu-machiIt is a small town surrounded by mountains of Shikoku.


Special products of Kamikatsu-machiAwa YonchaSo the tea garden is spreading in the town.


In Kamikatsu-cho, "Kamikatsu-cho Zero · Waste Declaration" was made, "Let's make garbage incineration and landfill disposal zero by 2020". Waste means garbage in English.


NPO corporation "Zero · Waste AcademyMr. Aki Sakano who is the chairman of the company. Their "Zero Waste Campaign" started in Kamikatsu Town by their activities.


Until the 1990s each house had burned garbage or thrown it in the mountains. Incineration of garbage by burning badly adversely affects the surrounding environment and it also causes air pollution, so we abolished it and started to thoroughly separate garbage and recycle it throughout the town. Zero Waste means not to make garbage somewhere, but to reuse everything.


People in the town bring their household waste to a sorting station and discard each item separately.


The type of garbage to sort is 45 items. Of course, as soon as this was a fine separation, the residents of Kamikatsu-cho seemed quite confused at the beginning.


Takeichi, who runs a store in Kamikatsu-cho, said, "When the Zero Waste movement began, it was a burden to our lives as it increased the time we had to do and the time to separate them, but as you throw away things It became stronger, and the feeling of treating things became stronger. "


In addition, housewife living in Kamikatsu-cho sorted garbage while saying, "It was quite puzzled because we had burned plastics and garbage all together until now, so it came to segregate."


Before coming to Kamikatsu-cho, Mr. Maibara, a restaurant chef who moved to Kamikatsu-cho, threw all of the garbage together and threw away garbage such as leftover foods in the compost with composting and then return it to the ingredients again It is said that consciousness has also changed by creating a cycle to circulate


The recycling rate for Japan as a wholeIt will stay around 20%However, as a result of continuing the zero-wasist movement for more than 10 years, the recycling rate of Kamikatsu-choAn amazing number of 80%Is raised. The movie was closed with the word of Mr. Takeichi saying "There is a certainty that the mind became rich as much as the burden on life increased."


In the comment field of the movie, "We dealt with this movie in the classroom of the school!" "We also have to follow this case. Let's start with a little thing really." "Wonderful, my country is like this There are many favorable comments from outside Japan, such as "I want it."