page_title: Waste management in Japan
section_title: Incineration
hierarchical_section_title: Waste management in Japan / Garbage disposal / Incineration
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 千葉市環境局、千葉北清掃工場（千葉市花見川区）
context_page_description: Waste management in Japan today emphasizes not just the efficient and sanitary collection of waste, but also reduction in waste produced and recycling of waste when possible. This has been influenced by its history, particularly periods of significant economic expansion, as well as its geography as a mountainous country with limited space for landfills. Important forms of waste disposal include incineration, recycling and, to a smaller extent, landfills and land reclamation. Although Japan has made process since the 1990s in reducing waste produced and encouraging recycling, there is still further progress to be made in reducing reliance on incinerators and the garbage sent to landfills. Challenges also exist in the processing of electronic waste and debris left after natural disasters.
context_section_description: Incineration is the most widely used waste disposal method in Japan, and is attractive because of its ability to reduce the volume of trash in a country mostly occupied by mountains or people. In 2017, there were about 1,200 incineration facilities in Japan. In 2014, 358 of these plants also generated electricity.  It is therefore important to note that in Japan, incineration and thermal recycling or energy recovery, where the garbage burned produces energy, are not synonymous.
  In Tokyo, a typical incinerator can handle 600 tons of garbage a day, which is the waste produced by about 600,000 people. Incineration is done at a high temperature, and the exhaust gas is put through many stages of cleaning and monitoring to ensure hazardous materials like dioxin and mercury are removed and not released into the air. One waste product of incineration is ash, which has about 10% of the weight of the original garbage burned. This ash can be disposed of in landfills or used as raw material in industrial process.
caption: An incinerator facility in Chiba, Japan.
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