Nobuharu Hirota

(Tsuchiura City office)

Abstract

Littering involving empty cans has become a great social problem, occupying a major part of the environmental administratative measures of each local government. Tsuchiura City has adopted the "Tsukuba method" for collection of empty cans mainly by way of collection machines since June, 1986. The "Tsukuba method" is defined as an open method, that is all empty cans can be exchanged for a collection bounty, and a lucky number prize system creates an economic incentive. The collection achievement of Tsuchiura City was 570 thousand cans in the first year, and has been subsequently almost constant at about 900 thousand cans, 2,400-2,500 cans per day, greathy exceeding original expectations. Working cost was 3 yen per can in 1989, and profit from selling collected cans covered about 10% of total costs. However there were problems involved in the renewal of collection machines on account of wear and tear, the difficulty of increasing the number of machines, and reducing working costs. It is considered that this work is benefical in that many people have taken an interest in environmental problems and recycling movements.

Key words: disperse prevent and resource of empty cans