[Open-air burning of waste in developing countries]

Source: Website of the Japan Industrial Waste Technology Center

Cycle Society (hereinafter referred to as “the Fundamental Law”), the Waste Management Law, the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilities of Resources and a number of recycling laws were enacted or revised. This year, Japan took a large step toward establishing a SMC Society.

The Fundamental Law defines a SMC Society as one in which the consumption of natural resources is curbed and the burden on the environment is minimized, by means of: 1) Preventing products from becoming waste;

2) Promoting appropriate and cyclical use of CRs that have been generated; and

3) Ensuring that CRs which are not subject to cyclical use are disposed of appropriately.

In other words, a SMC Society is a sustainable development-oriented society in which the following concepts are adopted as the basic socioeconomic principles: socioeconomic activities and people’s lifestyles based on the 20th century model of mass-production, mass-consumption and mass-disposal are reviewed; resources are used efficiently; waste generation is minimized; unavoidable wastes are recycled as resources; and wastes for which no means of recycling can be found are responsibly disposed of.

## D Suggestions to put Japan’s experience to good use

This chapter has described Japan’s path to a SMC by providing an overview of the systems used from the Edo era through to the present. Although Japan already had an established SMC Society in the Edo era, as it later opened itself to the world and tried to model the country upon Western nations, the Japanese way of thinking about goods and production styles changed. The country moved towards a mass-production and mass-consumption society. A variety of products produced in and after the 1970s caused many waste disposal problems, but systems and technologies for the responsible disposal and effective use of wastes also developed gradually over the same period. Progress towards a SMC Society gained momentum through the amendment of the Waste Management Law and the establishment of recycling laws in the 1990s and, since 2000, Japan has been recognized as a world leader in forming a SMC Society.

Developing countries are now in the midst of economic growth just like that experienced by Japan during its period of high economic growth. The inappropriate disposal of waste is common in these countries, and this includes the open dumping of waste, often industrial waste, and the open-air burning of waste. Electrical and electronic appliances imported from overseas, nominally for the purpose of reusing and recycling them, are also often subject to inappropriate treatment, posing a threat to the local living environment.

With resource conservation programs in these rapidly developing cities still far from complete, developing countries are nowhere near being able to deal with issues of global concern, such as resource problems and global warming problems. Japan needs to help them by sharing its experience.

Japan’s accumulated experience must be of help in solving many of the problems these Asian countries are faced with. Bearing in mind the history of Japanese systems described in this chapter, Japan should expand its program of assistance to other countries, especially in Asia, and help promote the establishment of a SMC Society, worldwide.