Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
Fig. 2-20 Map of regional PCB disposal facilities

## (4) Asbestos

Because of its excellent heat resistance, etc., asbestos has been used in many products, including construction materials. But it is now regarded as a cause of pneumoconiosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma, etc., so the production, use, etc. of asbestos and products containing it have been prohibited. The Waste Management Law designates waste asbestos, i.e. substances that represent a danger of asbestos being dispersed in the air, such as structural members sprayed with asbestos and heat insulating materials made of asbestos, as industrial waste under special control. Waste asbestos-molding panels, such as waste asbestos slate, are classified into non-scattering waste asbestos, but there is a danger that asbestos will disperse when such waste is destroyed or broken in the course of disposal. Accordingly, a technical guideline for appropriate disposal was published in March 2005.

In February 2006, the Law for Revising Part of the Air Pollution Control Law, etc. to Prevent Damage to Health, etc. due to Asbestos was promulgated and the Waste Management Law was partly revised. Specifically, in order to promote safe and rapid disposal of waste containing asbestos, a new system (detoxifying treatment qualification system) was established. In this system, an enterprise that executes detoxifying treatment using high technology, such as melting, requires no approval by the metropolitan or prefectural governor for industrial waste management business or the installation of an industrial waste management facility when approved by the Minister of the Environment.

There are two methods available for the final disposal of scattering waste asbestos: one is disposal in a controlled landfill site after scattering-preventive treatment, such as packing or solidifying with concrete, etc., and the other is disposal in a controlled landfill site or an inert controlled landfill site as general industrial waste, after melting the waste and thus removing its property as industrial waste under special control.

Today, non-scattering waste asbestos is mostly subject to landfill disposal. But it is expected that a large quantity of non-scattering waste asbestos will be generated as the number of buildings to be demolished increases in the future. Therefore, studies are progressing on the utilization of existing industrial waste melting facilities or on treatment using production facilities, such as a cement kiln (Fig. 2-21).
Fig. 2-21 Flow of asbestos treatment facility

## (5) Infectious waste

In order to prevent infection, hypodermic needles, scalpels and specimen containers that are used in medical institutions, etc. must be disposed of properly when they become waste. The Waste Management Law designates infectious waste (waste containing infectious pathogens or to which an infectious pathogen is adhered, or waste having such probability) generated in medical institutions, etc., as waste under special control (industrial waste under special control or general waste under special control).

For infectious waste, the disposal standard is stipulated in the Infectious waste management Manual that was published in March 2004, whereby it is required to remove infectiousness with an incinerator, melting facility, etc. It is also mandatory to use an incinerator or a melting facility that can completely incinerate or melt waste and to prevent the living environment from being polluted by the exhaust gases of such facility.

Fig. 2-22 Incineration treatment flow

Source: Kureha Ecology Management Co., Ltd.
In order to appropriately treat infectious waste, various technologies have been introduced. For example, a rotary kiln type incinerator is used, in which infectious waste is burned together with other industrial waste that plays the role of combustion improver, etc. to destroy infectious bacteria, to detoxify infectious waste, and to reduce its volume (Fig. 2-22).

### 3. Technologies for the 3Rs

To construct a sound material-cycle society, it is necessary to implement the 3Rs: reducing (controlling the production of wastes), reuse, and recycling. Specifically, it is necessary to first limit as much as possible the production of waste and at the same time, reuse, recycle, and thermal-recycle wastes produced, as much as possible, in this order of priority, i.e., use them cyclically to ensure that improper disposal or treatment of them is prevented and their environmental loads are reduced. The implementation of the 3Rs is also based on related technologies. This section discusses waste-reducing technologies, waste-reusing technologies, designs for recycling, material-recycling technologies, and thermal-recycling technologies.

## (1) Material-reducing or reusing technologies

Efforts to reduce waste include making more efficient use of materials and extending the lives of products. An example of using materials more efficiently includes making the walls of PET bottles thinner. That structural improvement has so far made the 10 to 40% lighter containers.

For containers and packagings for soap and detergent, the use of plastic materials has been reduced by concentrating the soap or detergent to make it smaller and by developing and selling refilled bottle products and replacement bottle products. According to a survey by the Environment Committee of the Japan Soap and Detergent Association, the shipments of refilled bottle products and replacement bottle products have increased fivefold in the past nine years. The quantity of plastic materials used in 2004 was 52,500 tons, half of the 113,000 tons that is assumed to be the case if the products had not been made more compact.

For home appliances, products have been made lighter by reducing the numbers of their parts and making them as units. For automobiles, the body has been made lighter by using much more aluminum, high-tension steel plates, and so on.

## Column : Reusing Technology

According to a recent report, the reusing technology where a special toner is used with which the printed faces of paper sheets used with office equipment can be erased so that the sheets can be reused has been developed. That technology makes it possible to reuse a paper sheet five to ten times. It is reported that it has reduced the amount of paper used.

Erasable toner

Erasing device for erasable toner

Copying machine for erasable toner

Source: Toshiba Corporation
improve recyclability in the design stage. For example, in order to dismantle end-of-life vehicles, the suction hole of a fuel-removing device has been made larger in the diameter to shorten the work time for removing the fuel of them and an air saw capable of quickly cutting windshield glass has been developed that reduces work time by 45%. Furthermore, in order to design easy to dismantle automobiles, a technique that makes it possible to simulate the status of pulling resin parts off an automobile on a computer has been developed. Thus, the status of breaking down an automobile can be known without testing on real vehicles. (Fig. 2-24)

## (3) Wastes to resources: material recycling technologies

Material recycling recycles waste into usable material. This section discusses the recycling of waste containers and packagings, end-of-life vehicles, discarded home appliances, construction waste, paper, and so on as typical types of material recycling introducing technology that recycles waste into resources.

## a) Recycling of waste containers and packagings

The Law for the Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging (hereinafter referred to as “the Container and Packaging Recycling Law”) defines containers and packagings as “containers and packagings for commercial goods (including such container or packaging for which money is charged) that are unwanted when the goods have been consumed or when they are separated from the goods.” “Containers”, which include glass containers, PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles,

Fig. 2-25 Material recycling of waste plastics

Fig. 2-26 Bottle-to-bottle recycling process
produced in the heating and recovering coke as the residue. The hydrocarbon oils are used as chemical materials in chemical plants, and the coke furnace gases as fuel gases to power steel plant generators. (Fig. 2-29)

In the chemical industry, a technology to thermally decompose waste plastics into gases for materials contributes to the saving of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Specifically, in a waste-plastic gasification process, waste plastics are processed into intermediate

Fig. 2-29 Waste plastics recycling by a Coke oven

Source: Nippon Steel Corporation

Fig. 2-30 Process of producing ammonia from waste plastics
formed products in a pretreatment process. The products are then put into a pressurizing two-stage gasification furnace (EUP system) involving the low and high temperature stages where they are thermally decomposed into hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide gas. The gases generated as a result are put into ammonia production equipment where they are synthesized with nitrogen in the air to make ammonia. With this technology, waste plastics can be recycled into ammonia of the same quality as the conventional product produced from naphtha and other substances used for such materials as nylon. (Fig. 2-30)

A technology to make oils from waste plastics has also been put into practical use. Specifically, waste plastics are separated from foreign matter in a pretreatment process and then put in a recycled oil production apparatus where the plastics go through a demineralization process, a thermal decomposition process, and a oil production process into hydrocarbon oils (heavy, middle-weight, and light oils) as recycled commercial goods. For the uses of those hydrocarbon oils, light oils are accepted by oil refineries as petrochemical materials, and middle-weight and heavy oils are used as fuels for power generation.

Introducing these technologies required solving a number of difficult technical issues, such as the removal of chloride in waste plastics and forming processes.

## b) Recycling end-of-life vehicles

The automobile industry, which is also called a comprehensive industry, produces automobiles using various materials such as metals, glass, and plastics. End-of-life vehicles have conventionally been recycled or disposed of by companies specializing in dismantling or crushing. Nowadays they are recycled under the Law for the Recycling of End-of-Life Vehicles (End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling Law) with specified targets for reusing resources from shredder dust at 70% or higher, and airbags at 85% or

Fig. 2-31 Recycling aluminum wheels

Fig. 2-32 Technology for carbonizing automobile shredder residue

Source: Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.
Fig. 2-33 Flow of processing waste tires

Source: Nippon Steel Corporation

higher by 2015.

An example of technologies to recycle end-of-life vehicles is collecting aluminum wheels for melting down and converting into suspension parts. This technology enables an automobile company to establish an intra-company recycling process where it collects used products of its own, melts them down, and makes them into new parts in its parts production factory. (Fig. 2-31)

End-of-life vehicles after all reused or recyclable parts are collected are crushed and shredded into shredder dust. Until now, shredder dust has been buried, but is now being treated by means of recycling technologies because a target rate for reusing it as a resource has been set. For example, shredder dust is put into an indirectly heating rotary kiln shielded from the air and thermally decomposed at $ 450^{\circ} $ C for one to two hours to obtain carbides (thermally decomposed carbon) that are used as materials and fuel for electric furnaces. This process also recovers valuable metals. (Fig. 2-32)

About 100 million tires, or one million by weight, are discarded every year. Typical examples of waste tire recycling include using them as a firing fuel in cement production, as a material for cement, and as a source of thermal energy. In addition, in steel plants, technology to convert them into a resource has been introduced. Specifically, pieces of cut up waste tires are put in a scrap melting process furnace, where the carbon components of the rubber are used as materials and fuel for the production of pig iron, while the steel cords (the iron in string form that forms the skeleton of a tire to maintain its shape) are used as a source of iron. Another technology put into practice involves thermally decomposing waste tires in an externally heating rotary kiln to separate and produce gases, oils, and carbons by means of dry distillation and iron wires for use as materials and energy sources. Each of these technologies used in steel manufacturing processes has converted waste tires into resources at 60,000 tons annually. (Fig. 2-33)

## c) Recycling of discarded home appliances

Since the Law for the Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances (the Home Appliance Recycling Law) became effective, home appliance producers are required to recycle four specified appliances into commercial goods at a rate (excluding thermal recycling) of at least 60% for home air conditioners, at least 55% for television sets, at least 50% for refrigerators and freezers, and at least 50% for washing machines. The steps for recycling home appliance products are shown in Fig. 2-34, where various technologies are used to ultimately recover metals, glass, and plastics. As an enhanced effort for recycling plastics, waste plastics recovered from used home appliance products are used again as components for new products. Recycling that substitutes and reduces the input of virgin materials has a higher value added (closed recycling). Such recycling has been made possible by meticulously separating the collection of waste plastic from used home appliances by means of manual dismantling and by
developing technologies to make the properties and service lives of recycled plastics meet the requirements of the home appliance products to which they will be applied. (Fig. 2-35)

Changes in the rates of recycling the four specified products in the Home Appliance Recycling Law into commercial goods according to their materials are shown in Fig. 2-36. As shown there, the recycling of non-metal materials such as plastics and glass has increased since the Law became effective.

Fig. 2-34 Flow of recycling home appliances

Fig. 2-35 Case of closed recycling

Recycling the drum of a discarded washing machine to a new washing machine

Source: Sharp Corporation

Fig. 2-36 Change in volume for four specified materials recycled for reuse as a product

Source: Environmental Council Planning Committee on Sound Material Cycle Society
## Column : International Resource Cycle of Used Copying Machines

A system is in operation for collecting used products such as copying machines, printers and related products, including cartridges, in nine countries and regions in the Asia Pacific region. The used products are delivered to a recycling factory in Thailand, where they are dismantled and sorted and then recycled into a useable resource. In constructing this international resource-cycle system, four principles were established: (1) preventing unlawful disposal of such machines, (2) producing no environmental impact on the import country, (3) importing no waste, and (4) returning some benefits to the import country. Collected used products are sent from each sales location to the plant together with a list of weights, where they are dismantled and sorted out into 68 categories. In 2005, about 20,000 units of used copiers and printers were collected, of which 99.2% were converted back into resources.

Areas covered by recycling system and routes for recovering used products

Source: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

## d) Recycling of wastes from construction sites

Wastes coming out of construction sites include not only concrete and asphalt waste and sludge, but also mixed construction wastes. Mixed construction waste may include not only waste produced in the construction, remodeling, and dismantling of buildings, but also fractional pieces of construction materials, packing materials, and waste materials from provisional structures,

Roller screen unit

Source: TAKEEI CO., LTD.

Gravity separator

Source: Takatoshi Co., Ltd.
Subbase course material

Source: Daiko Group

Washed recycled sand

Source: Mud Recycling Association

which may be mixtures of waste plastic, wood, paper, metal, and so on. According to a survey on the state of by-products from construction by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan, the quantity of construction waste produced in 2005 is about 77 million tons in weight, which represents a decrease from about 83 million tons reported by a similar survey in 2002.

In order to encourage the recycling of construction waste, the Construction Material Recycling Law was established in 2000. This law requires that those who have construction contracts under specific conditions dismantle and separate construction waste and

## Column: History of Recycling Gypsum

Sulfur dioxide $ \left(\mathrm{SO}_{2}\right) $ discharged in the burning of coal or oil is removed by a desulfurization device. A large-scale boiler, for example in a thermal power plant, is based on limestone slurry absorption desulfurization technology. This technology involves using limestone $ \left(\mathrm{CaCO}_{3}\right) $ or slacked lime $ \left(\mathrm{Ca}(\mathrm{OH})_{2}\right) $ to absorb $ SO_{2} $ to make the limestone or lime into gypsum (calcium sulfate: $ CaSO_{4} $ ) or calcium sulfate $ \left(\mathrm{CaSO}_{3}\right) $ . Gypsum produced in this process has been recycled into gypsum boards for use as a building material for interior walls and ceiling substrates.

In October 1999, however, there occurred an accident at a final stable disposal site in Fukuoka Prefecture where a worker died of suspected hydrogen-sulfide poison. Other similar cases occurred around the country. It was discovered that buried waste gypsum boards can be metabolized by sulfate-reducing microorganisms living in groundwater at the disposal site thus producing hydrogen sulfide.

In view of the above-mentioned fact, the involved parties have made efforts to recycle waste gypsum boards and reduce the quantity of such waste. A technology to recycle waste gypsum boards into boards has now been developed.

Recycling gypsum board

Source: Yoshino Gypsum Co., Ltd.
Fig. 2-39 Paper-recycled pulp production process

used paper is used as a material for paper manufacturing on the basis of its advantage in formability, it is also now being used to create other paper products.

The technology for producing used paper pulp for use as recycled paper involves (1) decomposing used paper into fiber in a mixer called a pulper, (2) screening out foreign matter such as sand and plastics, and (3) bleaching the fiber by means of a flotator (bubble-producing device) to make the ink attach to and float with bubbles. (See Fig. 2-39)

## g) Technologies to recycle non-burnable waste and large-size discarded articles

In 2006, the quantity of non-industrial non-burnable waste reached about 2.76 million tons and that the quantity of large-size discarded articles about 800,000 tons. Technology to crush and sort the waste and efficiently convert the valuable portions into resources has been introduced. The technology involves crushing waste and articles with a crushing machine first roughly and then finely into pieces of sizes and shapes that enable efficient sorting by sorting equipment, selecting crushed iron pieces by means of a magnetic separator, sorting crushed grains by means of rotary sieves on the basis of the different grain distributions according to substances to separate non-burnable components efficiently, and further separating non-ferrous components by means of a ferromagnetic drum rotating at high speed. The final residues are burnable. (Fig. 2-40)

Fig. 2-40 Facility for crushing and sorting large-size discarded articles

Source: Kubota Corporation
## h) Recycling incineration ash

Various waste such as garbage incineration ash or sewage sludge in urban areas are used as a main material (about 50% of the materials) in the production of eco-cement. Eco-cement was included in the Japan Industrial Standards (JIS) in July 2002. Materials for ordinary cement include limestone, clay, silica, and iron materials. In the case of eco-cement, garbage incineration ash, sludge, and so on produced in urban areas is used instead of limestone, clay, and silica. Garbage incineration ash contains all the components necessary for the production of cement and is effectively used as eco-cement. In the process of the production of eco-cement, some heavy metals contained in such ash are separated and recovered.

A picture of an eco-cement plant

Source: the homepage of the Tokyo Tama Extended-area Resource Cycle Cooperative

Fig. 2-41 Eco-cement flow sheet

Source: Ichihara Ecocement Corporation
measures, the Agency revised the Fire Services Law in June 2004, and revised the ordinances to add recycled resource fuels including RDF to the specified combustibles materials in July 2004. These measures went into effect in December 2005. With those revisions, municipal governments added standards for the location of storage and handling of recycled resource fuel, as well as technical standards for the structure and equipment for such storage or handling, to their own fire prevention ordinances in order to ensure safety.

## d) RPF (refuse paper & plastic fuel)

Difficult to recycle used paper and waste plastic (excluding vinyl chloride) found mainly among industrial wastes are crushed and then compression-formed after iron pieces are removed. Such formed products are called refuse paper & plastic fuel (RPF). RPF is made from industrial waste, which has an easily known history of being produced as an RDF material in comparison to combustibles derived from non-industrial wastes. Since this does not require a drying process, the production process of RPF is simpler. RPF can have a heat capacity of about 5,000-10,000 kcal per kg by adjusting the mixture ratio of used paper to waste plastic and is used in substitution for fossil fuels such as coal or coke by paper manufacturers and steel manufacturers. (Fig. 2-45)

Fig. 2-45 Flow of RDF production

A general view of RPF production line

## e) Methane fermentation

Methane fermentation acquires methane from organic substances by an anaerobic fermentation process. It is suitable for biomass waste such as kitchen garbage and animal feces, which have high water content. The methane gas obtained is used as a fuel for power generation.

Residues of methane fermentation can be used as compost and liquid fertilizer. There are also cases where kitchen garbage and sewage sludge are mixed with each other, made soluble, acid-fermented, and then methane-fermented, in order to stabilize the content of the methane fermentation tank and also treat discharged water in the existing facilities of a sewage treatment plant. (Fig. 2-46)
Fig. 2-46 Example of methane fermentation

Source: Bio-Energy Co., Ltd.

## Column : Chicken Feces Power Generation Plant

In Miyazaki Prefecture, where livestock farming is a major industry, the first chicken feces power generation plant in Japan was constructed in fiscal 2001 and has been in operation since April 2002.

About 50% (100,000 tons annually) of the chicken feces produce plant. Water vapor produced in the boiler is used as a heat source in fertilizer production processes as well as for power generation. Incineration ash is granulated into fertilizer.

Outline of project

Number of beneficiary households	Poultry farming households in the prefecture: 232 with 11,914 thousand chickens
Broiler-farming households among the above: 203 with 8,841 thousand chickens
Layer-farming households among the above: 29 with 3,073 thousand chickens
Processing plan	Chicken feces: 100,000 tons/year
Broiler feces among the above: 91,000 tons/year
Layer feces among the above: 9,000 tons/year
Quantity of incineration ash produced	10,664 tons (to be granulated and sold as fertilizer)

Source: NANGOKUKOSAN Co., Ltd.

Diagram of chicken feces boiler