Hokkaido towns tie up with Jimoty platform to foster reuse

For the first time in Japan, a local government is collaborating with an online community noticeboard to link non-internet users to the service. The effort is will encourage them to swap their secondhand items and to reduce waste. It is an encouraging example of a partnership between policymakers and a corporate platform that moves the community together toward shared goals.

The trial between Hokkaido’s Rausu Town and digital noticeboard service Jimoty began earlier this month. Town employees will visit the homes of residents who do not use the internet. And on their behalf, the staff will post large waste items, like furniture and electrical appliances, on the noticeboard.

The move is part of the environmental plan of Rausu Town, which is a gateway to the Shiretoko National Park. As residents have spent more time at home during the spread of the COVID-19 virus, many of them have been tidying up. This led to an increase in the disposal of large trash, much of which is still in good condition.

Facilitating community-based action

Jimoty is a platform that shares local information, particularly to facilitate the swapping and sale of secondhand items between people in the same community. Users can search by their prefecture, town or village for information on swaps. Also, it has categories that include job openings, real estate and volunteering. The site is free to use and stretches throughout Japan.

As part of an awareness campaign to encourage reuse among residents, Rausu Town will also introduce the Jimoty service in its newsletter, its trash disposal information and official SNS accounts. Reusable items that don’t find a new home via Jimoty during a set period will then be advertised in the town’s publications.

Rausu Town staff will also inspect large items sent to the Rausu waste disposal facility and post suitable pieces on Jimoty’s site if the original owner agrees.

Making good connections

Jimoty says it has 10 million users every month. In recent years, the service has increasingly been used to reduce food loss, to aid volunteer efforts after natural disasters and to support single parents.

In July, Jimoty started its first collaborative trial with a municipality for the reuse of large trash items, like tables and chests of drawers, through an agreement with Kitami City, which is also in Hokkaido. Under that agreement, the city promotes the Jimoty service in its publications and selects items from its trash collection to post on the noticeboard.

Filling the gaps of recycling through collaboration

The tie-up between Rausu Town and Jimoty is simple, yet striking, in the way it extends the functionality of the internet to those who can’t access it. It shows the need for collaboration to fill the gaps in the abilities on each side of the corporate world and public services to add to the public good. While the private company has the online platform up and in place, local governments have staff on the ground to visit the people and places that the digital platform can’t reach.

It is encouraging to understand that in our work to reduce waste and improve the world, we may not have to drag ourselves through the long process of reinventing the wheel and instead can achieve a lot just by connecting the dots between the services and infrastructure that is already in place.