Tag - waste

 
 

WASTE

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
Feb 12, 2019
Tepco to deploy robot for first contact with melted fuel from Fukushima No. 1 nuclear disaster
The owner of the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 power plant is trying this week to touch melted fuel at the bottom of the plant for the first time since the disaster almost eight years ago, a tiny but key step toward retrieving the radioactive material amid a ¥21.5 trillion ($195 billion) cleanup effort.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 8, 2019
Startup's 'water from air' project aims to turn back Thailand's tide of plastic
Staying at a hotel on the Thai island of Koh Samui in 2015, Meghan Kerrigan noticed the four bottles of water she was given every day were clogging her trash can with plastic. Outside her door, Chaweng Beach was smothered in rubbish.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 1, 2019
U.S. secretly shipped Cold War-era plutonium to Nevada, raising safety fears and riling lawmakers
The U.S. government secretly shipped a large amount of deadly plutonium from a South Carolina site that produced the radioactive metal for nuclear bombs during the Cold War to Nevada, the Trump administration revealed on Wednesday.
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
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2019
Plastics and consumer goods makers announce $1.5 billion pledge to rein in waste
Global companies including BASF, DowDuPont, Procter & Gamble and SABIC have formed an alliance to fight plastic waste, pledging to spend $1.5 billion over the next five years.
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
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Dec 24, 2018
Nagoya community effort to recycle food waste wins U.N.-related award
A decade-old community effort in Nagoya to recycle food waste from supermarkets and school lunches to make compost for vegetable farming has been awarded the Biodiversity Action Award by the Japan Committee for United Nations Decade on Biodiversity (UNDB).
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2018
French pair invent plastic-to-fuel recycling system fit for African bush
A French actor and a self-taught inventor have designed a low-tech machine that converts plastic waste into diesel and gasoline, which they say could help fight pollution and provide fuel for remote communities in developing countries.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2018
Ben Lecomte ends bid to swim from Japan across Pacific after support boat suffers damage
On June 5 Ben Lecomte entered the ocean off Chiba Prefecture to begin his attempt at a record-breaking swim across the Pacific, with the aim of shining a light on ocean pollution and plastic contamination.
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.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’