Osaka pushes for circular economy amid weakening recycling trends

Osaka Prefecture is encouraging its residents and businesses to work with it to create a circular economy. The government of Osaka has been releasing annual data since 2016, showing how effective the community’s recycling actions have been. The initiative shows the prefecture’s commitment to its policy, but the lackluster figures suggest that it will be difficult to achieve its goals and that new ideas are needed.

The Osaka Prefectural Government’s plan for the promotion of a “recycling-oriented society” includes numerical goals in four categories, in line with the policy of the national government: volume of waste emission, the recycling rate, the volume of waste for final disposal, and the volume of home waste emission per resident.

Initial results for the fiscal year that ended in March show that the recycling rate is heading lower. After starting at 13.8% in 2016, it has dwindled to 13.0%. The government’s goal of 15.8% for the target term of the current fiscal year looks unattainable. Figures for the other categories have barely changed over the last four years.

Following the disappointing results, Osaka Prefecture said it needs new initiatives to reduce waste and increase recycling.

Promoting the 3Rs in Osaka

During the last fiscal year, the prefecture ran various awareness campaigns to promote the ‘3Rs’ of waste reduction, reuse and recycling. It encouraged residents to use their own reusable shopping bags and drinking bottles and, through partnerships with various organizations, set up bottle-filling stations to reduce the use of PET bottles. It has also held awareness campaigns on waste reduction and food loss.

Particularly for plastic waste, it set up a network in July last year to promote measures for the reuse of single-use plastic and the reduction of marine plastic waste. The prefecture also held a symposium on measures to reduce plastic waste.

Gauging the success of recycling efforts

As well as the aforementioned data, Osaka Prefecture also releases figures in similar categories based on its own calculation methods. It designed these indexes to help each section of the community – residents, businesses and towns – gauge the success of their recycling endeavors.

For example, a gram-based value for the volume of household waste emission per resident gives the public an idea of how fruitful their 3R efforts have been. The ratio of recyclable trash to overall household waste gives them an indication of how well they are separating their waste items and shows how effectively the recycling system is operating.

Although these indexes outperform the national averages, they have also changed only marginally. The index for the volume of household waste emission per resident, for example, was 514 grams in 2016, dropped to 504 grams for the next two years then rose to 512 grams in 2018 due to increased waste from damage caused by an earthquake and a typhoon that hit Osaka Prefecture that year. Last year the figure improved, slipping down to 508 grams.

Other indexes track industrial waste, and once every five years measure whether more of it is being recycled and whether the volume of it that goes to final disposal has reduced or not.

A potential turning point towards a circular economy

Osaka Prefecture’s diligent composition of this data enables it to gauge the effectiveness of its efforts for a circular economy. The lackluster results may provide an important turning point for improvement. As it says, the figures show that new initiatives are needed. That is likely true for more cities than just Osaka: the national figures that it compares its performance to have also changed little over the last five years.

The current standard recycling activities may have reached their limit and new social and business models are needed to achieve a circular economy – action and deep collaborative deliberation rather than top-down calls for awareness.

It will be interesting to see what new initiatives Osaka Prefecture comes up with. It has an opportunity to lead effective change.