Mitsuo Ohashi

Executive Director of the Japan Network on Waste Landfill
(5-23-9 Tateishi, Katsushika-ku Tokyo, 124 Japan)

Abstract

In spite of the revision of the Waste Disposal and Public Cleaning Law, there still seems to be a long way to realizing a real solution to industrial waste disputes according to the contents of the revised Law. This is because the revised law doesn't prove the main causes of the problem but changes trivial ordinances, or even seems to be changed for the worse. This is like trying to put out a fire without closing the gas cock.

Illegal treatment of waste and "industrial waste problems" is getting more and more serious. Its main causes are that 1) the government has been ignoring mass industrial waste generation for years, 2) they virtually failed to secure the polluter's responsibility, and 3) they have had a policy of neglecting nature destruction and environmental pollution in the interest of waste treatment. In the end, the revised Law doesn't include effective rules of practice. The so-called 'strengthening of responsibility' for the waste discharging industries were only 1) to instructed companies with mass discharge to submit a waste reduction plan, 2) to apply a manifest to all kinds of waste, 3) to take imperative measures against the illegal use of manifests after delivery, and 4) voluntary funding of the land recovery fund, etc. (Although the standard to pass the waste from a discharging company to an industrial waste treatment company is planned to be strengthened in the process of the revision of ordinances of the Law afterwards) . This paper seeks the ways to solve "industrial waste disputes" , by pointing out the failure of the revision of the Law, and by providing proposals for future improvements.

Key words: industrial waste problem, industrial waste reduction (or minimization), responsibility of the waste creator, on-site treatment, site specific regulation