Asia Times: Harsh light shines on Japan's dirty habits



	January 18, 2000	atimes.com

Japan

Harsh light shines on Japan's dirty habits
By Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO - The return to Japan last week of an export shipment of illegal waste is reinforcing fears that authorities have been slow in addressing the country's trash problems.

Now, some say, Japan has managed to embarrass itself by being exposed as a nation that would dump harmful waste on a poorer neighbor, the Philippines.

The illegal shipment, which contains household and hospital waste, returned to Japan on January 10 from Manila. It consists of 122 containers of an assortment of trash, including used disposable plastic syringes, diapers and sanitary napkins. These items fall under the category of hazardous waste as defined by the 1989 Basel Convention.

Japan is a member of the convention, which bans all toxic waste movement, even for the purpose of recycling, from industrialized countries to developing nations. Specifically, the ban covers movement of waste from countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), to non-OECD nations. Japan, however, has yet to ratify the convention.

Ayako Sekine of Greenpeace Japan says the illegal shipment ''is a serious wrong committed by Japan against the international community''. But she also points out that behind this is ''the fundamental problem that Japan continuously generates enormous amounts of waste, for which the producer is not held responsible''.

Garbage disposal is generally handled by small firms at low cost, an arrangement that activists say impedes the drive to promote recycling. Indeed, of Japan's yearly industrial waste of about 400 million tonnes, only 150 million is recycled. The remaining 250 million tonnes are either buried or incinerated. Japan's annual household waste is around 50 million tonnes.

Greenpeace Japan estimates that illegal waste dumping within Japan already involves around 400,000 tonnes of trash per year. Activists say illegal trash disposal - including illegal waste exports - can only increase. Even more worrisome, the Health and Welfare Ministry has reported that current disposal sites will be filled up within the next two years.

Predicts Sekine: ''Given the local situation, there is a high risk that we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg and Japan will continue to illegally dump waste in developing countries because it is cheap to do so.''

Apparently, it is also rather easy to carry out. According to news reports, the garbage shipment that wound up in Manila had remained undisturbed at the port there for several months before local authorities decided to open the containers.

As critics point out, if the shipment had been taken away earlier by the Filipino company that was in charge of accepting it, the hazardous waste shipment would not have been discovered and would have been dumped somewhere in the Philippines, posing a risk to the local population.

''Several of these shipments must have been carried out to developing countries without the notice of police,'' says Haruo Shimada, who heads a citizens' movement fighting harmful practices for waste disposal.

It was an embarrassed Japanese government that paid for the return of the illegal shipment. The government has also filed a complaint against Yugengaisha Nisso Ltd, a waste disposal company based in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, that exported the waste in July and October. The company had labelled the shipment as recycled paper.

Nisso is reported to have gone bankrupt and its president is now missing. The company, which has been in the disposal business for several years, has been accused of illegal dumping of construction debris before, but that was here in Japan.

Activists are now putting more pressure than ever on the government for new laws against illegal waste exports. They also want legislation that will make companies that produce waste responsible for its safe disposal.

Masanori Kobayashi, a lawyer advising local groups, says the government has done nothing to control the huge problem of waste disposal. ''The emphasis is still on getting rid of waste cheaply,'' he says. ''Companies and other waste producers such as hospitals are simply required to produce papers that certify they have asked garbage disposal firms to take responsibility for the waste, and these firms in turn also forward documents that show they have done so. Nobody bothers to check how safe the disposal methods are.''

Kobayashi also argues that ''laws that force the reduction of garbage among Japan's mass-producing companies is the best way we have to control waste disposal''.

Shimada, who is based in Tochigi prefecture, would probably agree with Kobayashi's remarks. For years she has been an active campaigner against the illegal dumping of waste in her area, which is a few hours drive north of Tokyo. Tochigi, a vast wooded area, has been the dumping ground for garbage accumulated in the capital, activists say.

Two years ago, residents there created a storm when hospital waste leaked from a garbage site and caused several livestock farms operating close by to close temporarily.

(Inter Press Service)

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