Hope for the future of the environment

The town of Kamikatsu-cho, tucked into the mountains of the island of Shikoku, with the lowest population of Tokushima Prefecture, at 1,500, of whom about 53% are elderly, is facing the issue of depopulation. Nonetheless, the town-wide promotion of reduce, reuse, recycle, with the ultimate goal of Zero Waste, is helping to revitalize the community. The vision is being implemented through a waste recycling station where the citizens separate waste into various categories. While they have not reached the zero goal, only 20% of waste is incinerated or put into landfills, and 80% is recycled.

Until 1997, garbage was added to unusable forest debris on controlled burn sites. As this situation was problematic, two small incinerators were put in. However, unable to prevent the generation of dioxins, and not wanting to spend any more precious tax money on the waste disposal that creates counterproductive operations, then-mayor Yoshio Yamada decided to shut them down. Initially, the waste was sorted into nine categories, then into 35 in 2001. In 2003, the town council passed a resolution to adopt the Zero Emissions Declaration; today waste is sorted into 45 categories.

In 2005, a non-profit organization called Zero Waste Academy (ZWA) was established and took over the intermediate processing of waste that the town had been handling itself. The project was developed under the leadership of a succession of three executive directors and a single board chairperson interested in, and motivated by, environmental issues. Their method was based on listening to residents, working hard to explain the issues, and holding special classes at the local elementary school to interact with and inspire the children. I imagine that securing the residents’ consensus to commit not only to extreme waste sorting, but also the goal of zero waste must have been no small task.

Starting in 2020, the sorting facility has been updated to be more inviting to a general public from outside Kamikatsu-cho as well; it now includes not only waste processing, but also an exchange hall, a laboratory, the experiential facility HOTEL WHY and Kurukuru Shop (a community space where residents can leave unwanted items for others to take for free), all of which are run by BIG EYE COMPANY. Around 2012, the town considered the potential of selling electricity from renewable energy sources (wind and hydro), but eventually shifted its policy to focus on the value of its zero-waste initiative.

Through their messaging, the following facilities and businesses function as symbols of the town’s undertakings: the original sorting facility; HOTEL WHY, where visitors can experience sorting and RISE & WIN, a combination craft beer brewery & sales/BBQ cafe and general store established in 2016. Design and operations are the work of architect Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP (Kamikatsu Zero-Waste Center and HOTEL WHY, an environmental complex and accommodation facility); designer Naoyuki Suzuki (VI for RISE & WIN); Tone & Matter Inc. (business scheme advising) and Transit General Office Inc. (overall project management).

In my research, what impressed me was that the town’s initiative has focused support for this project from a truly wide variety of companies and individuals. The hard work of the nonprofit Zero Waste Academy deserves special mention. SPEC is a Tokushima-based company specializing in food hygiene and quality inspection and research that was among those invited by the then-mayor in 2011 to collaborate to counteract the town’s depopulation. This company proposed the zero waste center and the production of craft beer. The realization of those proposals contributed to the project’s current integrity.

RISE & WIN has been supported by a talented, hardworking and enthusiastic team, including Shota and Aki Ikezoe; beer sales were so good, and they could no longer keep up with the demand for their beer, so they built a facility with full-scale brewery equipment. This facility, where they also age beer in whiskey and wine barrels, is kept impeccably clean. Sales have steadily expanded for both waste-conscious "weigh and pay" food items and beer. RISE & WIN has also begun to cultivate wheat grown with liquid fertilizer made from brewing waste treated with microorganisms. I felt that the facility and the town represent the kind of life and work to which young people of the future will aspire.

The walls of RISE & WIN and HOTEL WHY are filled with collages of window frames and doors collected from the townspeople. I was deeply impressed by this idea, which symbolically represents the reclamation of resources while inspiring a sense of participation among the residents. Drawers from Japanese-style chests gathered from local homes are inlaid into the walls of the laboratory as well. The vestiges of daily life are thus exquisitely transformed, and the facility becomes an integral part of the people. It seems to me that here lies the future of creativity.

2022.2.7