7/5/2017 What are the 34 categories of waste in Kamikatsu, the 'zero waste' town?

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4th is the metal caps -The metal items are recycled and sold as metals. 48
What is Zero Waste Movement?
tonnes of total metals sold in 2014 by the total population of Kamikatsu
which was ~1700. Why is the zero waste philosophy important?

5th is clear glass bottles What is a Zero Waste community?

6th is white glass bottles which is melted What is a zero waste economy?

7th is the big bottle like the sake bottles which is washed and reused More Related Questions

8th is other color bottles are separated as per colors and they are melted and
Question Stats
recycled.
7 Public Followers
9th includes glass caps or mirrors or ceramics or window glasses (not the
bottles but the rest) Its crushed and downcycled and used in construction 2,067 Views

material. This process comes with a cost so the Town governing organization Last Asked Feb 7, 2016

has to pay for this as using new material is cheap compared to reprocess Edits
expense.

10th Batteries - It is one of the most expensive and hazardous recycling

materials. Metal is again used and the chemical is taken out. Solution is to
use rechargeable batteries

11th, 12th and 13th are around the Light bulbs category- They separate the
metal part so they are not together with glass. Use high quality LED instead
and they consume less electricity compared to the regular light bulbs.
Includes tube-light

14th is broken light bulbs

15th is the clean white plastic trays. other colors come in a dierent category.
They are recycled. Better not to buy products coming in plastic packaging.
Use your own box, for buying veggies, breads, meats.

16th is old clothing and curtains Kamikatsu has its Kurukuru craft center and
Kurukuru shops where the fabric and accessories are upcycled to new
products. So basically people in Kamikatsu can bring in whatever they don't
use anymore to the shop and then leave it there. Then whoever comes to the
shop can take it for free if you want it. You have to mention the kilogram

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7/5/2017 What are the 34 categories of waste in Kamikatsu, the 'zero waste' town? - Quora
weight of clothes taken or given, so that we know what is the quantity of
waste created in city.

17th is paper packs for milk, juices and alcohol in Japan. Recycled as paper
packs, wash it before giving at center.
Upvoted 17 Downvote Comments 2
18th Brown card board - recycled as card board and gets sold.

19th is newspaper - recycled and sold back as paper for newspaper.

20th magazines and small piece of paper - As magazine pages are glued
together, they cant be recycled to same quality material but it is downcycled
as a lower quality paper.

21st is wooden chopsticks. Some of the wooden chopsticks are brought into
the paper companies to be made into paper from the wood. Rest is used as
re source.

22nd is PET plastic bottles. It cost a lot of energy for the recycling and the
plastic can be only recycled once it's cleaned. Alternative is biodegradable
plastic. It can be composted though it takes longer than other organic
material but atleast is not a hazard.

23rd is The cap of the plastic bottles. It is recycled

24th is lighter. They are reusable - metal part can be sold & the plastic one is
reused.

25th is mattress and carpets. Sleeping carpets or the mattress or normal

carpets. Its dicult to recycle with all those plastic and chemicals used to
fuse the material together. Buy carpets which are made from recycled
materials.

26th is paper nappies/diapers both for the babies and adults. They get
incinerated, get burnt separately. There is a technology of separating the
materials and downcycle the paper and plastic part. But the expense involves
make sense for a bigger population. Kamikatsu is producing energy through
incineration. G diapers have reusable outside diaper and ush-able inside.

27th is used kitchen oil. and the plastic bottle which comes as container. Buy
in your pot. And try to reuse the oil more than once in cooking. The used oil
is reused in fertilizer.

28th is plastic packaging which is recycled if it is clean

29th is anything which has no alternative but burnt. Gum product. Lasers.
Gum boots, bags, shoes. incineration temp is very high and it burns
everything. Ash goes as landll.

30th is all tires. People who bring tires are charged a fee so that the tires are
sent to car dealers. Normally in Japan tires are collected by car factories or
the car dealers then they alone are responsible for like recycling or dealing
with the waste.

31 is leisure sized waste. Furniture, desks, big things are collected with a fee.
They are sorted based on material. Recycled if wood, sold if metals, etc. Most
of the things are re-used by other people.

32 is the electric products like refrigerators, ACs or washing machines. Giving

them away comes with a fee because it gets collected by the producers but we
need to pay for the collection.Most of the new ones produced are not that
harmful.

33 is organic wast/ food waste - they have two options, either buy a
composting machine or put your organic waste into your own farms or the
gardens. People who bring the thrashed down product doesn't smell bad and
within 2-3 days it becomes perfect soil.

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7/5/2017 What are the 34 categories of waste in Kamikatsu, the 'zero waste' town? - Quora
34th is a kind of plastics or the bottles for the agriculture, which carries the
greenhouse gas and agriculture chemicals.

These categories has made the city zero waste and I added the details to tell you how
precisely they managed each category to achieve zero waste. You may want to read
more amazing articles from change makers on the website or write to us.

I heard this almost two hour long interview and it has had a big impact on me. You
may want to listen to the podcast here. I request all of you to start with basics.

Some suggestions: Implement a new BYOB - bring your own bag (all bags, trays,
containers). Don't get the additional plastic as the packaging. Choose the shops or the
products that has less packaging in the plastics. Buy veggies without additional
wrappings and plastic bags. Carry your own reusable water bottles. Use fabric towel
and bring your towel to work

Buy less and waste less. In 2014 Kamikatsu calculated 10 tonnes of clothing material
brought at the centre and of the 10 tonnes, 9 tonnes were taken out by someone else.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

1.4k Views 17 Upvotes View Timeline

Stephen Shergold, Operates www.binsskipswasteandrecycling.com.au and

has over 10-year experience.
Answered Dec 20, 2015

Here are some of the categories:

1. brown glass

2. green glass

3. clear glass

4. other glass

5. tin cans

6. sake bottles

7. lighters

8. electric razors

9. cardboard boxes

10. nappies/sanitary towels

11. milk cartons

12. plastic containers

13. plastic bottles (separated by type)

14. plastic bags

15. burnables

16. small metals

17. used cloth

18. Bulky refuse

But not content with the 34 trash categories it dened four years ago as part of a
major push to reduce waste, Kamikatsu has gradually raised the number to 44.

329 Views 3 Upvotes View Timeline

Upvote 3 Downvote Comment

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