Japan's Trash Technology Helps Deodorize Dumps in Tokyo

Video

Tokyo Incineration Plant Makes Garbage Useful

The Toshima Incineration Plant in Tokyo burns 300 tons of garbage a day while producing electricity, hot water and even road materials. The incinerator runs in a dense urban area, reportedly without producing stench.

» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER

All these outstanding achievements in incineration are the result of grim necessity -- and massive government spending.

Japan is small, mountainous and densely populated. Landfills near Tokyo and elsewhere are filling up fast, despite the relatively abstemious garbage-producing ways of the Japanese, who throw out half as much garbage per day as Americans do.

Sorting trash is a serious civic responsibility here. In the eastern Japanese town of Kamikatsu, residents are required to compost all food waste and sort other garbage into 34 different bins for recycling.

In Tokyo, the rules are less onerous but far from lax. Bottles and cans must be rinsed before being placed in containers for curbside pickup. A rubber hose cannot be tossed out until it is cut into pieces measuring less than 20 inches. Milk and juice containers must be flattened before discarding. Neighbors notice -- and often complain -- if someone ignores the rules.

Lack of landfill space pushed Tokyo officials last year to expand the list of household trash that can legally be placed in the incinerator-bound "combustibles" bin that every householder keeps in the kitchen, along with bins for recyclables and non-combustibles. The garbage that can now be burned includes soiled plastic, plastic foam and rubber.

On a recent morning at the Toshima incinerator, Shino Yasuo, the plant manager, showed off his immaculate garbage-intake bay. He proudly explained why -- despite the comings and goings of 300 or so garbage trucks a day -- it smells so fine.

"We wash it frequently and we burn all the odious odors," he said.

Air pressure within the plant is kept at slightly negative levels, which draws in fresh air from the neighborhood and keeps bad smells from seeping out. Air that comes into contact with the giant bunker where smelly garbage is dumped before burning is constantly sucked up into the incinerator, which operates at an odor-obliterating 8,500 degrees centigrade.

The incinerator's smokestack is the tallest in Japan. At 689 feet, it is about 134 feet taller than the Washington Monument. It was built so tall for one reason: so the colorless carbon dioxide, water vapor and trace amounts of toxic particulates that come out of it will drift clear of a nearby skyscraper.

Building 21 incinerators inside Tokyo has been hugely expensive. The Toshima plant cost $140 million when it was completed in 1997, which experts say is far more than it would cost to build such a plant in North America.

Land in Tokyo is some of the most expensive in the world, and the entire project was delayed for nearly eight years, as city officials resolved neighborhood concerns. Before it could be built, they had to sweeten the deal with state-of-the art noise and traffic suppression, as well as the recreation and health centers.

"Unless local residents consent, construction doesn't begin," said Kidohshi, the garbage expert at the Japan Research Institute. "The negotiations go very deep, but once an incinerator starts operating, residents co-exist with it."