Most of Japanese Municipalities Collect PET Bottles Separately

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The Ministry of the Environment (MOE) of Japan released on October 28, 2008, data on various municipalities' separate collection and recycling in FY2007 under the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law. More than 90 percent of municipalities again began collecting steel and aluminum cans and PET bottles in FY2007. Sorted collection for other items has become more widespread than in FY2006, while 1,765 municipalities, accounting for 97.2 percent of the total, collected PET bottles separately.

Under the law, municipalities are required to select objects, including PET bottles and glass, plastic and paper containers, for sorted collection. With the spread of separate collection, the volume of collected PET bottles and plastic containers has increased substantially, as has the volume picked up by recycling companies.

In FY2007, 573,000 tons of PET bottles were sold, according to a survey by the Council for PET Bottle Recycling. The ratio of PET bottle collection to sales volume was 49.4 percent at the municipality level. Yet the rate of the collection reached a record high of 69.2 percent, an increase of 2.9 percentage points, when including the 113,000 tons of PET bottles collected by companies.

- Waste & Recycling website of the MOE
http://www.env.go.jp/en/recycle/
- Japan Achieves High PET Bottle Collection Rate at 61%　（Related JFS article）
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/025816.html

Posted: 2009/03/07 06:00:15 AM

TAG Government , Material reduction