At a mid-December meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization and UNESCO, Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa spoke with pride about his city's successes in the area of sustainable, environmentally friendly tourism.
"Since 2000, when we produced nearly 820,000 tons of household and industrial garbage, we've reduced that amount by half (as of last year) to around 410,000 tons. We did this despite a huge increase in the number of tourists over the past few years," the mayor told the delegates. The city's goal is to further reduce the annual amount to 390,000 tons by the end of 2021.
But dealing with the city's plastic garbage remains an expensive undertaking.