Saturday Nov. 3, 2007:
Plastic Incineration Rise Draws Ire
Environmentalists unswayed by limited tests, fears risks
(Quote:)
Yasuko Ueda, a writer and outspoken activist with the Tokyo-based Consumers Union of Japan, a nongovernmental organization, noted that the government has invoked the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law to require that plastics be re-used as “resources” to the greatest extent possible, but complained that her own ward, Setagaya, does far too little to either recycle plastic or curtail its production from the start.
Ueda said she estimated that waste plastic could be reduced by about half were the directive followed more aggressively.
“The amount of plastic that absolutely must be incinerated will be only a tiny amount and the (lifetime of dump sites) can be extended by 10 years and beyond,” Ueda said. “If they just skip over those steps and categorize all that plastic as burnable,” she continued, “don’t you think that’s wrongheaded?”