Japan METI’s Cicrular Economy Action Week begins today

From today until 7 October, METI is running its “Circular Economy (CE) Action Week,” timed to coincide with the annual 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) Promotion Month that government ministries hold every October. Rather than another top-down advocacy for recycling or policy announcement, the campaign is asking consumers to adopt a circular habit of buying, using, separating and, eventually, circulating.

Ten companies are helping consumers to visualise how the habits look like in their own way. Fashion rental service airCloset is discounting its first month’s subscription by up to 30%, while furniture rental platform CLAS is cutting monthly fees on its CIRCLE range by as much as half.

Suntory is publishing videos and quizzes on its bottle-to-bottle horizontal recycling, and Seven-Eleven Japan is pointing customers back to its in-store PET bottle collection machines, which have now taken in a cumulative 800 million bottles, rewarding five bottles with one nanaco point.

Panasonic is launching a subscription water purifier that does away with disposable bottles altogether, Bandai Spirits is showcasing its Gunpla plastic model recycling scheme, Lion is collecting used toothbrushes for reprocessing, and Kao is using social media to explain its own resource loops. Reform Studio is hosting hands-on repair and remake sessions at AEON Mall Urawa Misono from 2 to 4 October.

There will also be a physical event, to be held at MARK IS Minatomirai, where a Pac-Man tie-in event on 3 and 4 October turns waste sorting into a ticket to arcade play. Mercari, meanwhile, is reaching both ends of the generational spectrum, offering a week-long social media giveaway, while their Mercari Kids Flea Market events in Tokyo on 17 October and Osaka on 25 October let children try buying and selling first-hand.

In additional to the campaign, METI also unveiled a “CE Action” logo to mark its launch. Any member of its Circular Partners (CPs) network, a roughly 600-strong public-private partnership, can now use on their own materials.