Resource recovery and waste treatment in Japan

After summarizing data on the rate of generation and the composition of Japanese municipal solid waste, current modes of collection and disposal are briefly reviewed. Industrial waste disposal in Japan is still a problem; its solution can be exemplified by Toyota's Motomachi integral disposal center, featuring waste segregation and pretreatment, incinerators, and wastewater cleaning. The remarkable Japanese effort in the development of elementary techniques and integrated systems for sorting municipal waste is illustrated by a few examples of such techniques and systems. A large part of Japanese refuse is incinerated in municipal incinerators inspired by W. European practice. Specific Japanese developments in the fields of incineration, gasification and pyrolysis are discussed and show an emphasis on fluidized bed techniques and on the problems of waste plastics and rubber disposal.