# Waste water treatment in mountainous areas

## Column

Waste water treatment in mountainous areas provides a valuable insight into some of the problems encountered when considering assistance for developing countries, raising issues such as the urgent need for improvement and the difficulty of maintenance.

There are many different initiatives underway to install eco-friendly toilets in mountainous areas in Japan. For example, bio-toilets (which use biological treatment) and toilets operated by natural energy (such as solar energy and wind power) have been built and have proven highly effective in terms of ease of maintenance.

[Waste water treatment in mountainous areas]

Source: Ministry of the Environment

## Section3 Efforts to prevent illegal waste imports and exports

To supplement the above initiatives in order to improve East Asian countries' capability to responsibly use and process CRs, the government should expand its efforts to prevent illegal waste imports and exports.

## (1) Trends in waste imports and exports

In Japan, imports and exports of goods that are designated as specified hazardous wastes by the Law for the Control of Export, Import and Others of Specified Hazardous Wastes and Other Wastes (the Basel Law) or are designated as wastes by the Waste Management Law are subject to various statutory formalities.

Statistics on Japan’s imports and exports of specified hazardous wastes under the Basel Law show that exports primarily consist of lead acid batteries bound for developed countries for use in metal recovery, and that none of these wastes are exported to developing countries. Imports mainly consist of metal-containing sludge and scrap electronic parts from Asian countries for use in metal recovery.

On the other hand, statistics on Japan’s waste imports and exports under the Waste Management Law show that exports consist of coal ash exported to South Korea for cement production, and that the volume of these exports is growing. In the case of imports, only a few cases have been reported, primarily consisting of mercury-containing waste batteries and fluorescent lamps from Asian countries, destined to be treated and recycled (Figure4-4-5).

## (2) Efforts to prevent illegal imports and exports

To control imports and exports of wastes, especially hazardous wastes, many Asian countries have put relevant laws in place pursuant to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention). However, there are still problematic practices such as exporting hazardous wastes without conducting the necessary formalities, and different countries having different definitions of the hazardous wastes controlled under the Basel Convention. One example of this can be seen in cases where wastes determined to be exempt from control in the exporting country are found to be subject to control in the importing country and are consequently rendered illegal.

To address such problems, the government should take action to strengthen the enforcement structure for the relevant regulations, and take domestic and international measures to clearly define which items are subject to control.

## A Domestic efforts

(a) Enforcement structure for regulations

The Japanese government is taking measures to ensure appropriate implementation of the Basel Law and the Waste Management Law in an integrated manner, and to strengthen the enforcement structure. This includes hosting explanatory sessions for businesses, providing preliminary consultation on individual import/export cases, and