The Koto Eco-Community Meeting, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, in Western Japan, has been conducting a program to measure the weight of household garbage placed at collection points since November 2007. The program was launched when Daiei Service Co., a garbage collection contractor in the city, introduced a new garbage packer equipped with weighing scales, named the "Scale Packer." The packer was developed by Kyokuto Kaihatsu Kogyo Co.

The program aims to reduce the amount of garbage by measuring its weight each at 108 collection points in the model area, which covers around 1,100 households. It is usually difficult to weigh the garbage at collection points; however, with communication devices, Scale Packer enabled the immediate data transmission of garbage weight and GPS information through a portable terminal.

After encouraging each household to separate garbage from recyclables and to drain water from food waste, an approximately 4 percent reduction in total garbage per day was achieved over four collection times from November 23, 2007, as compared to previous levels. The results were promising because household garbage usually increases during the year-end period. The Koto Eco-Community Meeting plans to continue the program through fiscal 2008 while encouraging residents by publishing the results in community magazines.

http://www.daieiservice.co.jp/e_csr_actv.html
http://www.kyokuto.com/en/index.html

Posted: 2008/08/09 06:23:05 AM

TAG Local government , Material reduction , NGO/Citizen , Non-manufacturing industry