Kimikatsu, Japan: The Town Without Trash

Cities like San Francisco may have placed a ban on plastic bags in grocery stores and boast of bike-friendly roads, but if you really want to discover the world's greenest spot, you'll have to head overseas, to the small town of Kamikatsu, Japan.

In Kamikatsu, there's no such thing as trash. You won't find a single garbage bin in any of the town's homes, and there's not a dump anywhere within driving distance. Instead, the resourceful residents must compost all waste from their food, and sort other trash into 34 separate categories, with sections for plastic bottles, razor blades, Styrofoam, and various other paraphernalia.

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Check out Collin Dunn's blog post "Does Recycling Really Do Any Good?"

Comments

[Triangle1]

11:46 PM on 07/19/2008

It says no trash there, yet they have 34 categories for trash? Those used razor blades and cell phone batteries have to go SOMEWHERE!

[leduck]

02:25 PM on 07/20/2008

Kimikatsu breaks the laws of thermodynamics
No pollution of any kind. Not even waste heat!
And everything is 100% recyclable. Not the tiniest scrap lost to a dust pan ever
They are a whopper chopper
an elixir
a panacea

Maybe they don't have batteries?
Maybe they live in a Japanese Amish paradise -- no electricity

Ok..., maybe they are not quite Edo Japan…,
But you have to give them credit, they are not a throw away society like us either
They seem greener then us by far

[thundermummy]

10:58 PM on 07/19/2008

Neat, but I think Ed Begley Jr. has had them beat for some time now.

[Pdubya]

09:57 PM on 07/19/2008

it is a personal choice, and it should be. more people would make the choice to reduce, reuse, recycle if they had a bit more education on the benefits of living simply.

certainly, we need more infrastructure for such things as mass waste, but we all - especially in these economic times - have got to realize the very basic element of survival. eliminate the need for packaging, transport, toxic imports and free ourselves.

being that the dollar is suffering a purposeful devaluation to reign in the new world order, it is becoming alarmingly apparent that reducing one's need for extraneous [deceiving] convenience and participating in locally grown goods, organic, re-using materials in new fashions will not only change the environmental imprint, but change the economic footprint of america - and globally.

have a victory garden. line it with something you were going to bring to the dump. sprinkle it with a bit of compost, and get to the garden on an upside down wine bottle path.

i've travelled much of the world. i've seen beautiful bamboo and bedspring fence gates in italy. an outdoor palm frawn night club totally of the grid in central america. bubba down the street smokes meat in a hickory coffin fed by a maple fire from leftover cabinetry work. the fire "box" is one half of a propane tank.

shangri la is in your backyard - in that pile of junk your spouse is telling you to get rid of.

[rivrgrrl]

01:00 PM on 07/19/2008

It's better to adapt voluntarily under one's own terms, I think, rather than have it shoved down your throat. Especially when the benefits far out weigh the extra effort needed to enact the change. And recycling is one of the easiest things to do. The recycling companies have worked to make it easier, such as ours where all recyclables can be put in one big container, to be picked up twice a month and sorted at the plant.

Will Americans change their wasteful ways? It seems doubtful in today's time, but with bold and inspiring leadership, I have no doubt the majority of citizens not only would do it, but feel good about finally being able to actually DO something personally to help solve the problem rather than just 'go shopping'. Who can afford to that anymore anyway. Nowadays, going shopping is going to the gas station and seeing if you have enough for a candy bar after filling the tank.

(Note to people that also have my type of systems, glass needs to be kept separated according to color for it to be recyclable. Put into these 'single stream' recycling bins, it usually arrives at the sorting facility broken into pieces and mixed with other colored glass, rendering it useless as a recyclable. I keep my glass out of the bins and take it to our local recycle center where I know it will be re used. Just an fyi for anyone unaware of this facet.)

[mergina]

10:13 AM on 07/19/2008

Shangri La? Is it Shangri La?