Research on Eco-Towns in Japan - UNEP

5. Case study3: Minamata Eco-Town
Table 5-1 Facilities in Minamata Eco-Town
Eco-Town hardware projects
Other projects
1 2 3
facilities Bottle Reuse & Recycle
Project
Waste Plastic Compound
Resin Recycling Facility
Household Appliance
Recycling Facility
companies Tanaka-Shoten Co. Ltd. Repla-Tec Co. Ltd Act B Recycling Co. Ltd
technologies This project involves the collection,
washing, and inspection of
currently circulated “one-way”
bottles and selling them back to
manufacturers with added value.
T hrough the implementation of this
project, disposable “one-way”
bottles may be reused, waste
output may be reduced, and
effective use can be made of
limited resources. From the
standpoint of the manufacturer,
Based on the “Container &
Packaging Recycling Law”,
recycled waste plastic is used as a
raw material in the following
procedure: shredded plastic →
powder → pellet. Through this
process, compound recycled resin
pellets can be manufactured with
the same quality as virgin pellets,
and can be used to make
sec ondary products such as U-
shaped frames , exterior walls for
Based on the “Home Appliance
Recycling Law” enacted in April,
2002, the company collects four
types of used electronic household
appliances (televisions,
refrigerators, washing machines
and air-c onditioners), processes
them to a high degree through
s eparation and sorting techniques,
and yields reusable parts to be
used again in manufacturing,
aiming to increase the effective use
reused bottles can be purchased at buildings, rice-paddy liner sheets, of resources and reduce harmful
a lower price than new ones, while agricultural nursery boxes, plant effec ts on the environment.
actively promoting their image as an pots and so on
environmentally-conscious
company.
capacities Reusable Bottles: 3,000,000
bottles/y
Waste plastics:12,000 t/y Waste household appliances:
40,000 units
operation 2001.11. 2003.4. 2001.4.
costs 348 million yen 1.43 billion yen 510 million yen
subsidies (by 149 million yen 700 million yen 0
national
government)
subsidies (by 49 million yen 10 million yen 50 million yen
local
government)
other projects
4 5 6
facilities Human W aste Recycling Used Tire Recycling Project Oil Recycling facility
companies RBS Co. Ltd. Southern Kyushu Tire Kiraku Mining Co. Ltd.
Recycling Co. Ltd.
technologies This project involves the production Used tires from cars and trucks are Used oil from automobiles, gas
of fertilizer from human waste
collected from the
Minamata/Ashikita region. The
fertilizer produc ed is used in park
gardens, rice paddies, onion and
other vegetable fields, tangerine
and other fruit orchards, tea
collected, crushed and ground into
fine rubber pellets that can be
made into reusable rubber,
permeable elastic tiles, weeding
sheets, permeable sheets, etc.
T he goal of this project is to
promote the reduction of
stations, etc. is filtered and treated
and made into a recyclable product
to be used in paper mills, forging
processes, secondary aluminum
alloy smelting and various types of
thermal-us e heavy oil, in an attempt
to apply effective resource
plantations, golf courses and so on, environmental pollution by allocation and reduce the burden on
establishing an intra-regional processing used tires which would the environment.
resource cycle.
otherwise create a large amount of
capacities Raw sewage treated:34,000 Used tires:: 840 t/year Used oil:1,000 kl/y
kl/year
operation 2001.10. 2002.1. 2002.3.
costs 1.4 billion yen 140 million yen 400 billion yen
subsidies (by 0 0 0
national
government)
subsidies (by
local
government)
0 47 million yen 0
45