Takamitsu Ishii
Chief of Sanitation Section, Environmental Preservation Department, Tsukumi City Hall
(20-15 Miyamoto-cho, Tsukumi-shi, Oita 879-24 Japan)

Abstract

As incineration facilities aged and the time came due for overhauls, it became necessary to gain a consensus among local residents, as well as consider energy use and resource processing. However, the local government of a township with a population of 25,000 people faced the situation where it was not only impossible to recover power but also impossible to use it for such things as heated pools. Through the introduction of a solidified fuel facility which uses the chemical solidification method employing crude lime as an additive, raw refuse that was before considered to be a nuisance can be combusted and turned into fuel. It is then possible to use this solidified fuel wherever and whenever it is needed, and in the necessary amounts. Waste incineration facilities can be turned into production plants for solidified fuel. The fuel that is produced will be used at one of the city's cement factories as incineration ash and as the raw material for cement. This facility has been named the Dream Fuel Center by the city, and is scheduled to be completed by December 1996.

Key words: public distrust, chemical solidification method, demonstration experiment, national subsidies, packaging recycling law