Kamikatsu

Fame often comes to those who did not expect it at all. While scientists and activists around the world are searching for new ways of waste recycling from a variety of motives, in Japan a whole village of fifteen hundred people just lives peacefully without leaving garbage at all.

Kamikatsu - a settlement in Japan, belonging to the prefecture of Tokushima, is located in a picturesque gorge between the mountains. Residents of the town for 15 years have been particularly concerned about the issue of garbage disposal and over the years have improved their sorting and processing system so much that today they do not leave any waste at all. The city by right can be called the most environmentally friendly in the world and certainly quite unique.

The pub in Kamikatsu is made from recycled bottles and newspapers, photo WEB

This seems impossible, but 80% of the garbage here is recycled, and the rest goes off as fertilizers in the fields. Somewhere in a large metropolis, these figures would be difficult to verify, but here everything is veru clear. There are no garbage in Kamikatsu either on the streets or in houses, as it goes into a specialized sorting center.

Do you still wonder how some European families keep 3-5 buckets in the house for different wastes? Hold on tight! In Kamikatsu, residents sort their waste into 34 categories! The tube from the toothpaste flies into one basket, and the cap is already in another, tins in the third, and aluminum in the fourth.

Residents sort their waste into 34 categories in Kamikatsu, photo WEB

To understand that where to throw, the residents are helped by a pamphlet made almost on 30 pages, which can be found literally in every house. And yet, in the sorting center workers are again reviewing the trash so that there is nothing superfluous in it. In addition, an information sheet hangs over each sorting tank, explaining why it is this type of waste that is thrown away separately from the others, and what will come out of it after recycling.

This could happen, probably only in Japan. But meanwhile, even for the Japanese this is a real curiosity, but worthy of respect. So, recently, in a "city that does not leave garbage" on the tour began to carry schoolchildren from all over the country, so that they could see with their own eyes how to live simply and beautifully in a world without waste.

 On excursions began to carry schoolchildren from all over the country In the city, photo © rdnd.Kamikatsu

Kamikatsu is already noted on the maps of ecological tourism and now the popularity of this place is growing rapidly. True, it is still in narrow circles, but experts are looking for ways to scale the waste management system adopted here and    

In the new ideology, a whole generation of Japanese has already grown up in Kamikatsu, which literally do not represent how you can not sort the garbage. It is noteworthy that people here completely differently refer to things in general and they can't be called  a society of consumption. Everyone understands that any new thing is in the future work on its utilization. That's because garbage here is generated completely not on the same scale as in any other place. Citizens more likely wash a plastic bag than buy a new one.

In Kamikatsu a whole generation of Japanese has already grown in the new ideology, photo © rdnd.Kamikatsu

By the way, in regard to old things here, everything is "not like people". In the center of sorting there are special containers, where residents add up things that they do not need. Clothing, bungling electronics, household items find a second life in this place. In the city there is a whole guild of caring people who selflessly produce small repairs of discarded things, so that they can be quickly disassembled by the needy.

However, despite the fact that such a local ecological experiment has 100% proved itself and proved its viability, it is hardly possible to apply it in large cities. After all, in the city of Kamikatsu, self-awareness of the inhabitants, united by a common idea, became the driving force. Is it possible to implement something like this forcibly? Wait and see.

Victoria Romanova, Russia, Moscow

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