Policy / Systems / Technology

February 28, 2012

 

Community, Local Government Working Together to Reduce Use of Plastic Bags in Oita Prefecture

Keywords: Local government Policy / Systems Reduce / Reuse / Recycle 


The Oita prefectural government announced on November 2, 2011, that Haruo Fukamichi, a professor emeritus at Oita University who had contributed to getting many businesses to sign an agreement committing them to make efforts to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags, received the Environment Minister's award for fiscal 2010. It is given to people and groups who have made a distinguished achievement in promoting the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle).

Under to the agreement in the prefecture concluded in 2009, businesses, consumer groups, and local governments cooperate to reduce the use plastic shopping bags throughout the community by stopping the free shopping bag provision from June 2009. As of December 2011, 221 stores of 30 businesses in the region were participating in the agreement, under which participants began to stop supplying free plastic bags since 2009.

It is reported that some 30.5 billion plastic shopping bags are consumed annually in Japan. Estimated from the Prefecture's population, about 340 million bags are supposed to be used in Oita Prefecture alone every year, amounting to 21,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and 6,200 kiloliters of oil utilized to manufacture the bags.


Local Governments' Efforts to Reduce Plastic Bags Spread Nationwide (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028942.html
Results Presented of Nationwide Survey for Promoting System of Charging for Plastic Bags (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028647.html

Posted: 2012/02/28 06:00:15 AM

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