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Sustainability

How Kamikatsu became the first zero-waste town in Japan, and what we can learn from them

Meet the tiny town that's radicalizing the ways we recycle.

Photo credit: Canva

Anyone can transform their relationship with waste.

In Japan, one of the first things you notice is how intense they are about recycling. Bins are guarded by two to three uniformed protectors who are quick to tell you if you’re doing things wrong. For a novice—especially one from America—that seems to be almost everything. The plastic plate wasn’t washed clean enough, you’re headed to the wrong bin (there are many, all with varying purposes), etc.. It can feel quite exhausting until you realize that Japan is a global leader in plastic bottle and e-waste recycling, with an impressive 86% and 70%, respectively. Compare that to the global recycling numbers: according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, about 30% of plastic water bottles (PET) are recycled globally and only 22% of all e-waste is formally recycled globally.

However, nestled in the lush mountains of Shikoku Island—the smallest of Japan’s four islands—is a tiny town that’s revolutionizing the trash and recycling industry. Welcome to Kamikatsu. All 1,400 residents here are so committed to zero-waste, they sort their garbage into 45 different categories and don’t even use garbage trucks. And their efforts have paid off: Kamikatsu received a remarkable 81% recycling rate—the highest in the world, thus far.

Recyling, reusing, environment, Japan, environmentKamikatusu's recycling techniques are well worth the effort. Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center

For perspective, Japan’s national average (for overall solid waste recycling) is only 20%. Germany is considered as the global leader in recycling household and municipal waste, with a recycling rate of 67%. Following Germany are Austria (58%), South Korea (59%) Slovenia (58%), and Belgium (54%). The United States rests at 32%, although it aims for 50% by 2030. In short, Kamikatsu isn’t just lapping the world’s global leaders: it’s redefining what’s possible.

Which wasn’t always the case. In the 1970s, there was nothing exceptional about Kamikatsu, in terms of recycling. According to ReasonsToBeCheerful: “The roots of Kamikatsu’s reuse revolution go back decades. During Japan’s postwar economic boom, the expansion of mass industry created huge amounts of waste, which increased from 6.2 million tons in 1955 to 43.9 million tons in 1980. In response, municipalities across Japan, including Kamikatsu, began to build incinerators to dispose of it all. But over time, concern grew about the pollution being created.”

Recycling, Japan, zero-waste, trash, environmentThe inside of Kamikatsu's Zero Waste Center. KAMIKATSU ZERO WASTE CENTER

The town’s transformation took years, beginning in 1991, when officials first tackled food waste by providing composters to every household. By 1997, they’d created nine categories for recycling:

  1. Newspapers
  2. Magazines and flyers
  3. Cardboard
  4. Milk cartons
  5. Other paper
  6. Aluminum cans
  7. Steel cans
  8. Glass bottles
  9. PET bottles

This was the moment that changed everything for Kamikatsu, a significant cultural and logistical shift that laid the foundation for years to come. "It was tough because it changed their day-to-day duties," admits Akira Sakano, founder and director of Zero Waste Japan, "but people got used to it."


Recycling, Japan, zero-waste, trash, environmentHow to recycle boxes and other cardboard goods. KAMIKATSU ZERO WASTE CENTER

Today, Kamikatsu continues its goal to become fully zero-waste. The town closed down their incinerators, removed all garbage trucks, and now boasts a radical 45 categories for recycling.

But do you really need a 45-category system to cut back on waste? Of course not. Here are five practices anyone can adopt at home:

  1. Compost your food waste. According to Kamikatsu’s garbage guide (which was helpfully translated by Core77), “Compost food scraps [is] the only resource you can recycle yourself.” By using compost bins, electric composters, and bamboo composters, residents are able to transform food scraps into valuable fertilizer.
  2. Embrace second-hand. The town has a “Kuru-kuru” shop, which translates to “come and go,” and offers free second-hand items to anyone who wants them. Each product is weighed and tracked, to account for exactly how much waste is avoided. To do this locally, try joining your neighborhood’s Buy Nothing group, or donate to a Tiny Free Library.
  3. Get creative with upcycling. Local artisans in Kamikatsu transform old clothes, like kimonos, and koinobori (fish-shaped streamers) into bags, jackets, and toys. So, ask yourself: Do I really need to throw away that jar, or could it become a treasured container? Old t-shirts could become lovely, braided rugs. Egg cartons make wonderful painted art projects or storage bins.
  4. Reuse your own containers. Places like The Refill Shoppe, Common Good, and Clean Cult offer green alternatives to single-use cleaning solutions and soaps. Their wide variety of refillable products also use less packaging and contain non-toxic ingredients.
  5. Question consumption. The Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center is shaped in a giant question mark, urging people to ask why they must spend money on something. Their website reads: “Why do you buy it? Why do you throw it away?” It’s a reset, an invitation to rethink your relationship with constant consumption.

As we face mounting environmental challenges, Kamikatsu offers a powerful reminder: with community commitment and creative thinking, we can transform our relationship with waste. Are you ready to try?

Recycling, Japan, zero-waste, trash, environmentGive radical recycling a try. KAMIKATSU ZERO WASTE CENTER

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environment

Real photo of downtown Tokyo in 1960 before skyscrapers were built is blowing people's minds

The before and after is so drastic people can't believe it's not an AI image.

QuartzXOX/Reddit,

Tokyo has changed drastically since 1960.

Americans have long had a fascination with Japan, but thanks to anime, manga and Pokemon, young people in particular seem to have a special affinity for the country and the culture. According to Travel Noire, Japan is the fastest growing travel destination for millennials and Gen Z, and tourism in the Land of the Rising Sun is booming.

Most people who travel to Japan spend at least part of their time in Tokyo, the world's second-largest city, but many modern travelers may not be aware of how drastically the city has changed in the past 60 years. Here is what Tokyo looks like today:

downtown TokyoTokyo Tower sits surrounded by skyscrapers in downtown Tokyo in 2023.David Kernan/Wikimedia Commons

That red and white pointed tower in the center of the photo is Tokyo Tower. When it was finished in 1958, Tokyo Tower was the tallest freestanding tower in the world at 333 meters. It was the tallest structure in all of Japan up until 2010. This photo is likely what people would expect the second-largest city on Earth to look like—lots of tall buildings close together to accomodate a dense population.

Obviously, if we went back in time far enough, the landscape here would look quite different, but we don't actually have to go back very far to see a different view of Tokyo. A 1960 photo of Tokyo Tower—an iconic landmark in downtown Tokyo—is so different than the current cityscape that it has people questioning if it's an AI-generated image.

Whoa. What a difference less than one lifetime makes. People in the comments say the 1960 photo looks like it comes straight from an anime scene or Godzilla movie from the past. Tokyo residents who were 10 years old in 1960—old enough to have clear memories of what the city looked like back then—are 75 now. They've watched the city transform from this traditional-looking scene to the modern metropolis it is today.

We have to go back a bit before 1960 to get the full picture of how much the city has changed. In 1940, the population of Tokyo was around 7 million people, but that number was cut in half during World War II. By October 1945, the city's population had fallen to a mere 3.5 million people. Since then, it's grown to over 14 million people—quadruple what it was when the war ended. (For comparison's sake, the population of New York City has grown less than 10% from 1945 to now.)

Tokyo began growing rapidly after the war, and growth accelerated through an economic boom in the 1970s and the tech manufacturing boom of the 1980s. Japanese innovation with electronics, cars, and more made them a major player in the global economy despite being a relatively small and isolated country geographically. Tokyo's growth from 1960 to 2010 paints a clear picture of the boom the nation experienced in the last half of the 20th century.

Downtown TokyoTokyo is the second largest city on Earth, but it may not be for long.Daniel L. Lu (user:dllu)/Wikimedia Commons

However, that massive growth Tokyo saw during the average baby boomer's lifetime has basically ground to a halt. Japan's overall population has been in decline since 2010, and Tokyo saw its first population decline in 26 years during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The future outlook doesn't look great on that front for the city, either. A study group set up by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government estimates that Tokyo's population will fall by half by the year 2100, back to the 7 million or so that the city saw in 1940—and nearly half of that population will be over 65. Japan's good reputation for longevity provides little comfort for a rapidly aging nation with a birth rate that doesn't line up.

"The number of people in their most productive years will decline, while local governments will face severe financial strains," the group said in a statement. "So it will be crucial to take measures to turn around the falling birthrate and enhance social security measures for the elderly."

Has Tokyo seen its heyday come and go? Will we see a very different photo of what surrounds Tokyo tower in another 60 years? Perhaps. But Japan has seen its fair share of crises and repeatedly come out strong on the other side, so maybe the city beloved by millennials and Gen Z alike will rise again in an innovative way that surprises us all.

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Health

How Japan's '80%' philosophy of eating may help us all be healthier

It's not about losing weight, though that may be a byproduct.

Photo credit: Canva

Japanese food tends to be healthy, but there's more to healthy eating than the food itself.

Many Americans were told to "clean your plate" growing up, meaning to eat everything you were served at mealtime. To leave food on your plate was considered rude, ungrateful or otherwise undesirable behavior, and the habit of eating everything in front of you became ingrained.

Kids raised in Japan may have been brought up with an entirely different philosophy, one that tells them to stop eating before they are full. It's called hara hachi bu (or sometimes hara hachi bun me).

Stop eating when you're 80% full

Hara hachi bu literally translates to "belly 80% full" and on it's face that's literally what it means—stop eating when your stomach feels 80% full. Asako Miyashita, RDN, a New York-based dietitian who grew up in Japan, told Women's Health that the phrase comes from a 300-year-old book by Japanese philosopher and botanist Ekiken Kaibara, "Yojokun: Life Lessons From A Samurai." The book is about listening to your body, and its author lived to 83, which was a remarkably long life at a time when the life expectancy in Japan was 50.

Fast forward to today, and the people of Okinawa, Japan, where hara hachi bu is a popular phrase, have some of the longest life expectancies on Earth. But can eating only until you're 80% full actually help you live longer?

It's possible. One reason may be calorie restriction. According to longevity researcher Dan Buettner, Okinawans eat about 1,900 calories per day on average. Compare that to Americans who eat over 3,500 calories per day on average. Caloric restriction has been shown to increase the lifespan of multiple animal species and has also been shown to slow the aging process in healthy human adults, so simply not pushing our caloric intake by filling our bellies all the way full may be something to consider if we're looking to live a long life.

Hara hachi bu encouraged mindful eating

Another benefit of the 80% full idea is that it forces you to be mindful about how your body's feeling while you're eating, which may contribute to better physical health. According to Harvard University, mindless or distracted eating—the opposite of mindful eating—is associated with anxiety, overeating, and weight gain.

"Hara hachi bu is not a diet, but a lifestyle that can help promote a sustainable approach to eating," dietician Kouka Webb, RN, told Women's Health. "It encourages mindful eating and portion control without the need for strict calorie counting or eliminating certain food groups."

family eating dinner in JapanA family eats dinner in Japan.Photo credit: Canva

Harvard shares that a literature review of 68 intervention and observational studies found that mindfulness and mindful eating slowed down the pace of people's eating and improved people's recognition of when they were full. Mindful eating also reduced binge eating and emotional eating.

Overeating can lead to weight gain, of course, but it can also disrupt your hunger regulation, increase your risk for certain types of disease, cause stomach issues like nausea, gas and bloating, and can even impair your brain function. If you stop eating when you're 80% full means you're far less likely to overeat.

But does that mean you're always left 20% hungry? Not necessarily. According to the Cleveland Clinic, it takes up to 30 minutes for your brain to actually process that your stomach is full, so if you stop when you feel 80% full, you'll most likely feel 100% full just a short while later.

Eat until you're not hungry, not until you're full

“There’s a huge gap between being physically satisfied and realizing in your mind that you’re full,” psychologist Susan Albers, PsyD. tells the Cleveland Clinic. “The connection between them is more like old-school dialup speed than instantaneous WiFi.”

Eating to 80% full is probably closer to the "eat until you're no longer hungry" advice that she gives her patients to feel satiated without actually feeling "full."

“When we think about the word ‘full,’ it’s often like filling up a cup or occupying every inch of a space,” Dr. Albers says. “But the fullness that we can feel and perceive in our stomachs is often being overly full. ‘Satiated’ is different, though. Satiated is meeting a need.”

As Buettner writes, "There is a significant calorie gap between when an American says, ‘I’m full’ and an Okinawan says, ‘I’m no longer hungry.’"

Of course, the traditional Japanese diet also tends to be quite healthy in terms of what they eat, but mindful eating, paying attention to how your stomach feels and stopping before getting full, is worth applying no matter what cuisine you're eating. Next time you sit down for a meal, give hara hachi bu a try and see how you feel. It definitely can't hurt.

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Love Stories

Husband spends 2 years planting thousands of flowers to bring his blind wife joy

Husband plants thousands of flowers for his blind wife to smell.

Youtube

Flowers are a great way to express your feelings for someone. Red roses say, "I love you," but a whole garden of pink flowers screams it. One husband took the romantic gesture of getting your wife flowers to the next level.

Mr. and Mrs. Kuroki got married in 1956, and Mrs. Kuroki joined her husband on his dairy farm in Shintomi, Japan, The Telegraph reports. The couple lived a full life and had two kids. After 30 years of marriage, the couple planned on retiring and traveling around Japan, but those plans were soon dashed.

When she was 52, Mrs. Kuroki lost her vision due to complications from diabetes. Her blindness hit her hard, and she began staying inside all day. Mr. Kuroki knew his wife was depressed and wanted to do something to cheer her up.

Mr. Kuroki noticed some people stopping to admire his small garden of pink shibazakura flowers (also known as moss phlox) and got an idea. He couldn't take his wife to see the world, so he had to make the world come to his wife.

Mr. Kuroki decided to plant more of the flowers in his garden, hoping they would attract more visitors and cheer up his wife. He knew she wouldn't be able to see them, but she would be able to smell them, and their pleasant aroma might bring her some joy. Mr. Kuroki spent two years planting thousands of flowers just so he could put a smile on his wife's face.

光失った妻に芝桜を 黒木敏幸さんと靖子さん夫妻 宮崎www.youtube.com

The plan worked and the stunning garden began drawing visitors to the location. A decade after Mr. Kuroki first planted the garden, the amazing love story behind it has turned the dairy farm in rural Japan into a major tourist attraction.

The garden draws up to 7,000 people a day when the flowers are in bloom in March and April. Their cowshed, which once held 60 cows, has been turned into a display telling their love story. Most importantly, Mrs. Kuroki loves the visitors and can be seen walking around the garden and smiling.

You can visit Mr. and Mrs. Kuroki's flowers with your significant other, but they better be prepared to answer questions as to why they've never done anything like that for you.


This article originally appeared on 7.18.19

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