RECYCLING:In Japan, increased competition - particularly from China - has made waste a pricey commodity
JAPAN FAMOUSLY loves its vending machines. According to the association that regulates the vending industry, there is one coin-operated machine in the country for every 23 people. Walk 50 metres in any town or city and you'll find a humming, neon-lit dispenser of hot and cold drinks, even atop Mount Fuji.
Such convenience comes at a cost. About 540,000 tons of PET bottles are produced in Japan every year, the bulk of them dispensed via vending machines. That presents a huge environmental headache, but garbage is quickly becoming a lucrative and competitive industry.
About two-thirds of that PET mountain is recycled by local councils, which sell the bottles, via the Japan Containers and Packaging Recycling Association, to registered recycling companies. Tokyo PET Bottle Recycle Co, the capital's largest recycler, and dozens of other smaller firms, make a living selling bales of washed and crushed bottles to carpet-makers, textile manufacturers and other firms that give thrashed plastic a second life.
As long as raw material costs stayed the same, this situation was stable, but since 2006 the price of a ton of PET plastic has soared from 17,000 yen (about €138) to 43,000 (€348), driven by a combination of rising oil prices and competition. Councils found they could sell to unregistered firms prepared to pay above the odds.
An increasing number of the firms are also foreign. Japan's largest recycling network is Chinese, the Oto Trading Company, which hoovers up PET bottles from councils across the country and ships them back home. Observers note a growing secondary market for the 190,000 tons of non-recycled PET bottles destined for landfills or incinerators, as businesses compete for once worthless rubbish.
Japan's Ministry of Environment acknowledged this year that Chinese demand had inflated prices for recyclable products and in some cases crowded out domestic recyclers.
Competition has already begun to produce its first casualties: Osaka-based recycler Negoro Sangyo Co, which made carpets from recycled PET bottles, closed in the summer. Tokyo PET Bottle Recycle Co is loudly complaining it can no longer source cheap raw materials and could follow.
Some firms have been forced to organise their own collections in schools to secure supplies. Tokyo recyclers look nervously to the US, where some producers have had to import PET plastic in the face of shortages, mostly because of ravenous Chinese firms.
Cardboard and computer parts have also risen in price. The cost of scrap iron in Japan rose by 50 per cent between 2003 and 2006, while corrugated cardboard almost doubled in cost in roughly the same period. Earlier this year, Japan's largest paper manufacturer, Oji Paper, weathered a scandal when it was found to have cut back on the percentage of recycled paper in its products, in some cases from the 70 per cent advertised, to zero.
The impact of the global financial crisis on this bourgeoning industry remains to be seen. Some Chinese cities report growing mountains of PET bottles as the rising prices of transport and raw materials ravage the industry. Recycled products are likely to take a hit in the recession. But the long-term prognosis is clear: the future of rubbish is strong.
According to the Japanese environment ministry, the amount of waste produced around the world will more than double to 27 billion tons by the middle of the century. Energy consumption is expected to double by 2030, and the growing Asian economies are likely to be particularly heavy users.
Recycling costs are plummeting: the price of turning a kilogram of PET plastic into a reusable bale in Japan has fallen from about 86 yen (about €69) to 2 yen in the last decade. And the number of products that can be made from discarded plastics, steel and paper is rising. Re-using rubbish will move from a peripheral activity to a core part of the modern economy.
