To contribute to resolution of waste problems in urban Asia (2/2)
Providing Asia with Tokyo's methods for waste management.
The Asian Network of Major Cities 21 (ANMC21) holds various training programs in specialized fields, for the benefit of officials and specialists from member cities.
Following up on the report of training in Kuala Lumpur in the last issue, we report here on training in "Promotion of Environmentally Sound Waste Management and Resource Recycling," which was held subsequently in Tokyo and a workshop in the field of solid waste held in Bangkok.
Report: Taka (Mr. Takanobu Iwasaki), Waste Management Division, Bureau of Environment, Tokyo Metropolitan Government
"Promotion of Environmentally Sound Waste Management and Resource Recycling" training program undertaken by Tokyo
Aiming to improve the capabilities of those in charge of waste administration in various cities, an ANMC21 training course "Promotion of Environmentally Sound Waste Management and Resource Recycling" introduces the experience, systems and approaches used in waste treatment and recycling in Tokyo. This time, from January to February 2012, in addition to three trainees from Bangkok, Delhi, and Padang (Indonesia), the training was joined by employees from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), city offices of the municipalities in Tokyo, and Kawasaki City. Not only did we provide a chance to intensively learn the whole process of waste management in Tokyo, i.e., collection, transportation, recycling, incineration, and final disposal, but also we shared some Japanese culture that values and saves things. As an example, we introduced "furoshiki," cultural wrapping cloth that can be used many times instead of wrapping paper, shopping bags, etc.
Furoshiki (wrapping cloth) workshop
For the TMG, this course was also an excellent opportunity to understand the state of waste treatment in the Asian cities and deepen exchanges with their officials. To enable as many employees as possible to participate and exchange views, the training was opened to the TMG employees and many opportunities were set up for them to eat with the trainees. One week training and exchanges enabled us to establish "a family-like relationship."
Right after the course in Tokyo, five Tokyo members including me visited Bangkok and held a workshop on solid waste with approximately 90 employees of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. We shared the recycling activities of Tokyo and Bangkok at the workshop.
[Main contents of workshop]
1 Actual experience of source separation of waste in Tokyo
Actual experience of waste separation
To enable participants to actually experience enforced source separation in Tokyo, waste separation games were run based on the idea of "how Bangkok's solid waste would be separated with Tokyo's rules." After this, by sharing some specific examples, we told the participants what flow would be used to treat the separated waste and how separation rules would be informed to residents to make separation thorough.
2 Introduction to "treatment of flood waste" from Bangkok
Bangkok suffered very extensive flooding damage. It introduced various approaches to quickly process the waste generated by the flood, including "modification of waste collection trucks to enable them to operate on flooded roads," "the active use of boats for waste collection," and "the creation of a system whereby unaffected areas supported the treatment of waste from affected areas."
This workshop was extremely significant for both Bangkok and Tokyo. I hope that we'll deepen mutual understanding and improve both cities' solid waste management.
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