Makoto Hama

Assistant Manager of General Affairs Dept., Environmental Management Bureau, Osaka City Government
(6-28 Minami-Ogimachi, Kita-ku, Osaka 530, Japan)

Abstract

The increasing volume of waste has caused difficulties for the waste management of local governments. It is necessary to make efforts to reduce waste before discharge. I appreciate the newly enacted packaging waste law because it makes the responsibility of entrepreneurs for recycling so clear for the first time in Japan. The Japanese Government is expected to make the system under the new law work effectively, especially by promoting the prevention of packaging waste and by avoiding overstocks of collected packaging waste for recycling. An analysis of alternatives for packaging waste collections by local governments is made in this report. The last part shows the importance of the role of citizens' activities in reducing packaging and other wastes.

Key words: packaging waste, local government, reduction of waste, citizens' activities