is based on the Japanese Container and Packaging Recycling Law. Plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

, paper

Paper

Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

, PET bottles, aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 and glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 are collected and recycled.

Container and Packaging Recycling Law

Also called Law for the Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging, has been enforced in April 1997 by the Ministry of the Environment

Ministry of the Environment (Japan)

The ' of Japan was formed in 2001 from the sub-cabinet level Environmental Agency established in 1971. The minister is a member of the Cabinet and is chosen by the Prime Minister, usually from the Diet., the current is Goshi Hosono...

 to reduce the waste of glass containers, PET bottles and paper cartons. Since April 2000 plastic containers and packages other than PET bottles have been included. According to the law, the recycling is conducted by the , a government-designated organization established September 25, 1996.

Recycling 2009

Product	Volume of recycling ton Ton The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from... s	Change since 2000	Recycling unit costs ¥ Japanese yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...  / kg	Change since 2000
Glass bottles, no color	155,076	-16,04%	4.1	-1,23%
Glass bottles, brown	133,560	+43,62%	5.5	-28,40%
Glass bottles, other	107,383	+10,09%	9.2	+13,64%
PET bottles	257,906	+167,03%	1.7	-98,09%
Paper	33,934	-29,03%	13.3	-77,32%
Plastics	853,581	+463,53%	65.7	-37,43%

• The consumers are required to follow sorting guidelines established by the municipalities
  Municipalities of Japan
  Japan has three levels of government: national, prefectural, and municipal. The nation is divided into 47 prefectures. Each prefecture consists of numerous municipalities. There are four types of municipalities in Japan: cities, towns, villages and special wards...
  
  .

• The sorted waste is then collected by the municipalities and stored for collecting by the recycling company.

• Manufactures and business entities using containers and packages have to pay a recycling fee to the JCPRA, in accordance with the volume they manufacture or sell.
• Each year recycling business entities are selected by a public bidding in every local municipality where a waste storage site is located. They are assigned to collect and transport the waste from the storage sites to recycling facilities. To make sure the waste is getting recycled, these recycling business entities receive payment only after showing a delivery report, signed by the recipient of the recycled products.

Recycling of steel cans

Beverage can

A beverage can is a tin can designed to hold a specific portion of a beverage. Beverage cans are made of tin-plated steel or aluminium.- History :...

 is not regulated by the law, but in 2006 about 99% of the municipalities collected and recycled them. In 1973 the , a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 to promote the recycling of steel cans, had been established. According to its statistics 88.1% of steel cans have been recycled in 2006, maintaining the world's highest level.

Other recycling laws

- enacted June 1998, enforced April 2001

• • Air conditioners, television set
    Television set
    A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
    
    s, refrigerator
    Refrigerator
    A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
    
    s and washing machines. - enacted May 2000
  • Concrete
    Concrete
    Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
    
    , asphalt
    Asphalt
    Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
    
    /concrete, wood
    Wood
    Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
    
     building materials
• Law for the promotion of effective utilization of resources - enacted May 2000, enforced April 2001

Symbols

Recycling symbols used in Japan

	PET bottles

Recycling plans

On March 25, 2008 the Japanese Cabinet approved a plan that targets to reduce the total waste from about 52 million tons in 2007 to about 50 million tons in 2012 and to raise the waste recycling rate from 20 to 25%. Thermal recycling and a charging system for waste disposal services will be promoted.

3R Initiative

This G8 initiative, first proposed at the G8 Summit in June 2004, aims to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle waste. At the G8 Environmental Minister Meeting in Kobe

Kobe

, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...

 on May 24-26, 2008, the ministers agreed about the Kobe 3R Action plan. It intends to improve resource productivity

Resource productivity

Resource productivity is the quantity of good or service that is obtained through the expenditure of unit resource. This can be expressed in monetary terms as the monetary yield per unit resource....

, to establish an international sound material-cycle society and to bring forward 3Rs capacity in developing countries. According to this plan, Japan also announced a New Action Plan towards a Global Zero Waste Society, aimed to establish material cycle societies internationally.

Scandals

In January 2008 five paper companies in Japan were accused of misleading customers about the recycled paper content of their products. Oji Paper

Oji Paper Company

is a Japanese manufacturer of paper products. It is the 6th-largest paper manufacturing company in the world in terms of revenue.- Operations :Oji Paper produces paper for printing, writing, and packaging...

, the largest paper company in Japan, admitted that its copy and print paper contained 5 to 10% recycled paper, instead of the 50% stated. The president of Oji Paper apologized to its customers, and the president of Nippon Pages, the second largest paper company in Japan, resigned to take responsibility. The Japanese Fair Trade Commission

Fair Trade Commission (Japan)

The is a commission in the Japanese government responsible for enforcing Antimonopoly Act. The commission is commonly known as Kōtori or Kōtorii .As of 2010, the chairman is Kazuhiko Takeshima....

 said it would investigate.

See also

• Recycling
  Recycling
  Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
  
  
• Mottainai
  MOTTAINAI
  is a Japanese term meaning "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized." The expression "Mottainai!" can be uttered alone as an exclamation when something useful, such as food or time, is wasted, meaning roughly "Oh, what a waste!"...
  
   - common Japanese expression, often used in this context
• Electronic waste in Japan
  Electronic waste in Japan
  Japan has been a leader in technological advances for decades and now they are among the leaders in creating ways to deal with the resulting waste. Since 1970, Japan has been treating the waste of electronic materials differently than other materials. They would hire specially trained workers to...
  
  

External links

• The Japan Containers and Packaging Recycling Association
• Ministry of the Environment, Japan
• 3R Initiative on the Ministry of Environment homepage
• Japan for Sustainability
• PC 3R Promotion Association