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Incineration in Japan
Introduction The first step of planning for waste management in Japan was initiated in year 1900 as the waste cleaning act making municipalities responsible for waste collection and disposal. [1]Despite such early efforts in SWM, also having a similar overall area to Germany & a culture concept of “Mottainai” which means “do not waste, everything has value, Japan still has the highest incineration rate which makes it case study of solid waste management intriguing. [2] [3][4]
Current status of municipal solid waste incineration in Japan
Japan’s mountainous topography limits the amount of plain land that can be used, which has prompted the government to invest in cutting-edge environmentally friendly incinerators that emits fewer toxic gases. [5] According to "Waste: Municipal waste", OECD Environment Statistics, 2019(database) Japan has the highest municipal solid waste incineration percentage with energy recovery at 74.9% & 4.7% incineration without energy recovery. [6] The overall amount of waste produced in the fiscal year 2020 was 2.5% less than in the previous year. The individual incineration capacity per plant has increased, even though the number of incinerators decreased from 1,070 in 2019 to 1056 in 2021. Additionally, there has been a modest increase in the number of power generating incineration plants, but as of March 31, 2021, the total power generating capacity has not changed. [7]
One of the measures to reduce waste was the enactment of food recycling act in 2019, which aims to reduce food wastage by half in 2030 from 2000 levels. In addition to working with the local and national governments to implement the necessary measures, it mandates food industries to report their food losses & measures taken to recycle food wastage regularly. The total food loss & waste for the fiscal year 2020 was reported to be 5.22 million tons whereas it was 5.7 million tons in the year 2019(MOE Japan Discloses the Estimated Amount of Japan’s Food Loss and Waste Generated in FY2020, 2022). [8]
Japan has switched to continuous incinerators from batch type & semi-continuous burning in order to increase the efficiency of waste to energy incinerators, per "CCET guideline series on intermediate municipal solid waste treatment technologies". [9] In Japan today, "Stoker type incinerators" are the most popular type of the aforementioned. They have a 24-hour operational cycle and require constant waste feedstock. They also include the following features a) Temperature is maintained above 850-degree Celsius b) waste pit c) ash pit for treated & untreated fly ash d) Bag filters for filtering air pollutants like dust, HCl, Sulphur dioxide from flue gas d) wastewater treatment plant. One such example of Stoker type incinerators is “Joetsu Clean Centre” located in Joetsu having a treatment capacity of 170 tons/day, the facility also uses non-catalytic denitrification technique for treatment of NOx. [10]
Conclusion
Limitation of land due to Japan’s mountainous topography necessitates it to treat municipal solid waste generated mostly via incineration. But there has been improvement in incineration technology from batch type & semi-continuous burning to continuous incinerators to increase the efficiency of power generating plants.
- ^ Mansouri, A., & Kacha, L. (2017, November). Waste Management System in Japan. Colloque international d’intelligence territoriale: “Valoriser le territoire et améliorer sa qualité au moyen de la gestion des déchets et de l’économie circulaire,” Béjaïa, Algeria.
- ^ M.L.I.T.J. (2019). I.Land and Climate of Japan. Ministry of Land,Infrastructure,Transport and Tourism. Retrieved April 28, 2024, from https://www.mlit.go.jp/river/basic_info/english/land.html
- ^ Obradović, P. (2000). What a waste! - The concept of Mottainai – Goodpatch GmbH. Goodpatch GmbH. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://global.goodpatch.com/blog/what-a-waste-the-conceptof-mottainai
- ^ OECD.(2022). Circular economy - waste and materials. OECDilibrary. Retrieved April 28, 2024, from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/f5670a8d en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/f5670a8d-en
- ^ Adekomaya, O., & Majozi, T. (2020). Incineration and energy recovery from waste materials: Assessment of environmental impact of emitted gases. Engineering and Applied Science
- ^ OECD. (2022). Circular economy - waste and materials. OECDilibrary. Retrieved April 28, 2024, from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/f5670a8d en/index.html itemId=/content/component/f5670a8d-en
- ^ M.E.G.J. (2022b, March 29). Municipal solid waste generation and disposal in FY2020. Ministry of the Environment Government of Japan. Retrieved April 28,2024, from https://www.env.go.jp/en/headline/2595.html
- ^ M.E.G.J. (2022b, March 29). Municipal solid waste generation and disposal in FY2020. Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan. Retrieved April 28, 2024, from https://www.env.go.jp/en/headline/2595.html
- ^ Liu, C., & Nishiyama, T. (2020). CCET guideline series on intermediate municipal solid waste treatment technologies Waste-to-Energy Incineration. IGES. https://www.iges.or.jp/en/pub/ccet guideline-wtei/en[Accessed 28 April 2024]
- ^ Higuchi, S. (2021). Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Technology in Japan [E-book]. Springer Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2734-7[Accessed 28 April 2024]