The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is promoting a model project on a city-operated housing development that involves demolishing old and rebuilding new housing at the Niijuku 6-chome Apartment Complex. The government recently released an interim report on the project at the end of the demolition process.

The reutilization rate of scrapped materials was 99.8 percent, achieved through dismantling and sorting. Among those materials, 100 percent of the building structure (including the foundations) was recycled, and 92.1 percent of interior materials. A total of 6,825 tonnes of materials resulted from demolishing the 117-unit housing complex, of which only 12 tonnes were not recyclable.

Of particular note, this project was able to reduce the amount of building interior materials incinerated or landfilled from this project by approximately 48 tonnes (about 208 cubic meters) by raising the recycling rate to 92 percent, compared to the typical rate of 60 percent for metropolitan housing.

The government has promoted further reutilization of materials by developing new recycling routes. For example; flat glass, which used to be converted into bottles or landfilled, was converted into glass wool or interlocking blocks; and gypsum boards, which used to be landfilled, were reprocessed into new boards.

In addition, a new experimental study will be launched on chemical recycling (gasification) of dirty PVC pipes, previously regarded to be difficult for material recycling among PVC building materials, that extracts hydrogen chloride as a reutilizable material by a fusing gasification method.

The government will start full-scale sorting of scrap from future demolition work based on this pilot project. In addition, the government will prepare a "Recycling Manual (for Demolition Projects)" this fiscal year as a guideline for the scrapping of city-owned and private housing, and also draw up a "Recycling Manual (for Construction Projects)" and "Recycling Guidebook" to promote education on recycling to medium and small construction companies and citizens of Tokyo.


- Tokyo Government to Recycle Entire Housing Development (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/105-j

Posted: 2002/12/17 03:32:35 PM
Japanese version

TAG Local government , Material reduction , Technology