Kamikatsu, a small arboreal village in south-west Japan, has begun the arduous process of becoming Japan's first zero-waste community. By its target year of 2020, the village hopes to say sayonara to any incinerating or dumping. The experiment involves each household separating its waste into no fewer than 34 categories before it arrives at the village recycling center; a sort of Baskin Robbins of rubbish. Here's a sample of the regulations:
"Glass bottles must be relieved of their caps and sorted by colour. Plastic bottles for soy sauce and cooking oil must be kept separate from Pet (polyethylene teraphthalate) bottles that once contained mineral water and green tea.
All bottles, cans and even plastic food wrappers must be washed thoroughly; newspapers and magazines have to be piled into neat bundles tied with a twine made from recycled milk cartons."
It's an ambitious endeavor; we wish the folks of Kamikatsu luck and success.
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