Tag - waste

 
 

WASTE

Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 22, 2019
Malaysia, flooded with plastic waste, to send scrap back to source
Malaysia, which has become the dumping ground for the world's plastic waste, will send back nonrecyclable plastic scrap to the developed countries that sent it there, its environment minister said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 17, 2019
Japan to ask municipalities to dispose of industrial plastic waste as trash piles up due to China ban
Municipalities that accept the request will pass on the costs for incineration to companies generating industrial plastic.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 16, 2019
Philippines withdraws top diplomats from Canada in dispute over exported waste
The Philippines is withdrawing top diplomats from Canada after Ottawa missed a deadline to take back 69 shipping containers full of trash, the latest move in a long-running row stoked by threats from Manila's outspoken president.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 4, 2019
Talking trash: The sport of collecting as much waste as possible
Thanks to Netflix, many are familiar with Japanese clutter-buster Marie Kondo and her soothing remedies for the melancholy brought on by conspicuous consumption. Kondo is already a superstar in Japan, where closet sizes barely keep up with snowballing affluence, but she wasn't the first in her field,...
JAPAN / Beyond Tokyo
Feb 24, 2019
As the world drowns in plastic, Kameoka in Kyoto and other cities across Japan fight back
Plastic pollution in the ocean has become one of the world's most urgent environmental problems. Footage of vast fields of floating plastic debris between California and Hawaii — now commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — have driven home the gravity of the problem, with scientists and...
WORLD
Feb 18, 2019
U.K. plans new tax to boost recycled plastic content and get producers to pay for waste disposal
Britain is to set out plans to overhaul its recycling system on Monday, including making producers of plastic packaging pay the full cost of dealing with their waste and introducing a deposit return scheme for cans and bottles.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jan 20, 2019
A Japanese city plans to ban plastic shopping bags, but can it push its larger neighbors to follow suit?
International concern over the environmental damage done by the use of plastic in various forms is now the topic of political and economic discussions across the planet. Dealing with plastic waste, especially in the ocean, is one of the long-term issues that Japan has promised to address at this year's...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 16, 2019
Trash talk: Tokyo city opens bar in waste-management facility to spark environment debate
Like many Tokyoites, Miki Takara, 53, was sipping beer and indulging in specially prepared delicacies at a bar on a recent Friday evening. But something made this scene in Tokyo's western city of Musashino a bit different: At this bar, the only thing separating her from a concrete waste pit was a single...
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 3, 2018
South Africans make bricks from human urine
South African researchers have made bricks using human urine in a process that could one day help reduce global warming emissions by finding a productive use for the waste product.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 27, 2018
Malaysia to phase out imports of plastic waste from developing countries
Malaysia is taking steps to limit imports of plastic waste, which has flooded the country since China stopped taking in foreign scrap for recycling, housing minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said on Friday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 26, 2018
Illegal factories cash in on Malaysia's plastics recycling plan
Hundreds of sacks filled with plastic waste from the United States, Britain, South Korea and Spain spill onto the streets of an industrial zone in Pulau Indah, an island town an hour from Kuala Lumpur that is home to Malaysia's biggest port.
Japan Times
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Oct 20, 2018
For Kyoto, a chance to lead Japan in fight against food loss
Compared with constitutional revision, the economy, celebrity gossip and pontificating (if not panicking) over geopolitical changes in East Asia and Japan's role in those changes, Japan's mainstream media and politicians had, until recently, given environmental issues less attention.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2018
Tokyo-based clothes recycling newbie to advance to Startup World Cup 2019
A Tokyo-based startup specializing in the business of recycling clothes is slated to proceed to the final stage of an annual global startup competition, scheduled to be held in San Francisco in May of next year.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2018
Tokyo Metropolitan Government to test paper straws at three coffee shops
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will test paper straws at three coffee shops in its two government buildings in Shinjuku Ward for a month starting Monday.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 22, 2018
'Staggering' crisis: Global food waste could rise by a third by 2030, study warns
Food waste could rise by almost a third by 2030 when more than 2 billion tons will be binned, researchers said Tuesday, warning of a "staggering" crisis propelled by a booming world population and changing habits in developing nations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 2, 2018
Market forces in Japan failing to tackle growing plastics problem
Last month, news outlets all over the world reported on the discovery of a plastic shopping bag at the bottom of the Mariana Trench near the Philippines, the deepest point in the Earth’s oceans. The discovery was made by a group of Japanese researchers studying images from deep-sea exploration projects,...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jan 26, 2018
Plastic waste making coral reefs sick, study finds
Billions of bits of plastic waste are entangled in corals and sickening reefs from Thailand to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists said on Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2017
Africa's plastic-bag bans won't solve anything
Plastic bags are just the most tangible symptoms of Africa's inability to collect and dispose of its surging volumes of garbage.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 12, 2017
Food for thought: Government agencies are joining private initiatives to tackle the growing problem of food waste in Japan
Consumers, retailers and businesses nationwide throw away millions of tons of food each year, with waste ultimately affecting profit levels and keeping officials up at night.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 10, 2017
Plastic fantastic: How does Tokyo recycle its waste?
The next time you trek out to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, situated on the fringes of Shinagawa along Tokyo Bay, look around and you'll see a giant smokestack by the Konan Ohashi Bridge. The visa-dispensing center, essential for foreign nationals who want to live in Tokyo, stands right by a...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell