Kubota targets 100 percent resource recovery from combustible waste

Kubota Corporation has launched a resource circulation project designed to mechanically separate food waste and plastics from municipal combustible refuse to achieve complete resource recovery.

The project was selected under the Ministry of the Environment’s resource circulation acceleration programme, with consulting firm EX Research Institute and environmental testing firm Environmental Control Center acting as joint implementers. External advisory support comes from the National Institute for Environmental Studies and the Japan Waste Management and 3R Research Foundation. Kubota is collaborating with the city of Yokohama and Tokushima Prefecture to examine regional recycling models and develop implementation roadmaps.

Combustible rubbish in Japan contains recyclable plastics, precious metals such as gold and copper, and organic matter suitable for bioenergy and phosphorus fertiliser. Most of these resources are incinerated without separation because municipal sorting systems place a heavy sorting burden on households and increase local collection costs.

In order to address this problem, Kubota devised a system where residents place food waste into designated small bags inside standard combustible refuse sacks, allowing municipal collection routines to remain unchanged while sorting facilities mechanically separate the waste streams.

The full-scale recovery system combines automated waste sorting with Kubota’s melting separation technology. The process converts sorted food waste into biogas fuel and compost, directs plastics to material recycling or furnace fuel, and extracts slag and metals from incineration ash. The operational goal is to achieve both zero landfill disposal and decarbonisation.

Trials in Yokohama are testing whether the designated food waste bags can withstand collection alongside general refuse without rupturing, while Toyama Prefectural University analyses waste composition and particle sizes. The project team is also interviewing potential material buyers and equipment manufacturers. Kubota plans to expand the system in future to process industrial plastic waste and sewage sludge.