# Section 2 Building a Sound Material-Cycle Society in the World through Venous Industries

### 1. Future Projections of the World’s Waste

Humans have prospered on Earth by taking natural resources, using them to produce tools and products, consuming and using those products, and then disposing of them when finished. As shown by the existing shell mounds where ancient humans disposed of things such as seashells and animal and fish bones, since the beginning of our existence humans have not been able to avoid generating waste from our activities.

Since the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the 20th century, the flow of things has increased at all levels of socio-economic activities, such as resource extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal, resulting in a mass-production, mass-consumption, and mass-waste socio-economic system. Humans have certainly achieved rapid economic growth, and the population has also increased. However, various negative effects have also been exerted on the environment, such as natural resource extraction, generation of large volumes of waste, exhaustion of natural resources, destruction of nature, problems with landfill sites, and so on (Figure 4-2-1).

Until the beginning of the 21st century such things were problems only in developed countries, but developing countries are now expected to have rapid economic development and population increases. There are concerns about increases in the environmental load, such as increases in the volume of generated waste. The impact on the environment may be even greater in developing countries because of their lack of awareness about waste treatment and their inexperience with technology (Figure 4-2-2).

A “one-way” socio-economic system, in which waste is not broken down but instead accumulates in the environment as a result of mass-consumption, will become an adverse legacy that will continue to have negative effects on the environment into the future. In order to reduce the environmental load caused by a one-way society and bring about a sustainable society, it is essential to promote the 3Rs of reducing, reusing, and recycling waste, enforce proper disposal, and build a sound material-cycle society.

From the end of World War II until now, Japan has experienced a wide variety of waste problems due to changes in economic and social circumstances. (Figure 4-2-3). Japan has made efforts in the fields of waste and recycling to solve those problems. Japan's current measures are said to be a result of the methods used in solving problems thus far.

Figure 4-2-1 Shifts in World Population and Volume of Waste (Municipal Solid Waste + Industrial Waste)

Sources: Ministry of the Environment estimates based on the following:

For population: "The World Economy: Historical Statistics (OECD)" and others

For waste volumes: "Research on Estimations of Global Waste Generation and Future Predictions"

by Masaru Tanaka (Research Institute of Solid Waste Management Engineering, 2011)

Figure 4-2-2 Future Projections of the World's Volume of Waste

Source: Research on Estimation of Global Waste Generation and Future Projections (Masaru Tanaka (Research Institute of Solid Waste Management Engineering, 2011))