Greenpeace Japan has made a weeklong tour of Japan titled, "Zero Waste Tour," inviting the world's foremost authority on waste issues, Dr. Paul Connett. This tour was designed to coincide with the Global Day of Action against waste incineration, which was participated by more than 200 groups from 62 countries.

To kick off the tour, a seminar on Zero Waste featuring Dr. Connett was held in Tokyo before the audience of 150 citizens.

"It is appropriate that I find myself in the incineration capitol of the world on this day of global action against incineration. While it is true that Japan has some of the best designers and engineers in the world, it is unfortunate that they are spending their time perfecting solutions at the back end of the problem like incineration instead of working at front end of better design of packages and products which are
more suitable for the demand of 21st century," said Dr. Connett.

On July 14, Dr. Connett and Greenpeace Japan then visited the Mayor of Hino, a city in the outskirts of the metropolitan Tokyo that successfully reduced its waste by 50%. Greenepeace and Dr. Connett spoke to Mayor Baba about other cities of the world that successfully reduced waste by implementing Zero Waste strategy, and recommended to the Mayor to adopt a similar policy. On 15th, the tour visited the city of Kuki in Saitama
prefecture to see the city's composting facility, a first of its kind in Japan, and commended its effort. On 16th, the tour traveled to Ookimachi in Fukuoka prefecture to visit its bio-gas plant which uses household kitchen waste, and met with the Mayor. The tour then went eastward to visit a town of Kamikatsu in Tokushima prefecture, known as a town without a garbage truck. Mayor Kasamatsu received Greenpeace group at the Tokushima airport in the evening of the16th. On the next morning, a seminar organized by the town of Kamikatsu started from 10:00 AM in its town hall, which was attended by more than 100 villagers including those who were from neighboring villages and cities. Dr. Connett spoke to the audience that a Zero Waste declaration announced by a community would lead corporations to follow this direction and to force the central government to change their policies inevitably. The audience packed in the town hall applauded his lecture, to which the mayor said he would take into account seriously. On 18th, the tour visited Nagai-shi and Tachikawa in Yamagata prefecture to meet the mayors. They were taken to the sites of their composting systems.

"With the declaration of Zero Waste by 2020 without incineration in Japan, the Zero Waste communities will take their responsibility to separate, reuse, and recycle seriously to minimize the pollution, the industries to maximize the ability to reuse and recycle of their products by the target date, and the central government to change the current system to support those communities and industries. The Zero Waste declaration is the best way to find a way out of our waste management system which has lost the vision of resource management," said Junichi Sato, toxics campaigner of Greenpeace Japan.

"We have traveled almost whole length of Japan from Okicho of Fukuoka Prefecture in South to Tachikawa of Yamagata Prefecture in North, looking for communities to prepare to fight throw away ethic. Specifically we have tried to find mayors who had courage to say No to incineration and Yes to Zero Waste. Throw away ethic is not natural to Japanese society, but this fact has been submerged by the mass of subsidies by central government has squanded building incinerators. It is in small towns and rural communities in Japan that we are looking for the visions to pull out the wisdoms of the past to reclaim a sustainable future for children. We found hope in Hino's pay by bag system, in composting operations in Kuki, Oki, Nagai and Tachikawa, and dynamic leadership of the mayor of Kamikatsu. In the community, 98 % of the citizens composting in back yards and glad to separate discarded materials into over 30 different categories in the world most beautifully located recycling station. We are very well convinced that at least one of these communities will become the first town in Japan to declare Zero Waste by 2020," said Dr. Connett.

The combined and simultaneous protest actions around the world mark the observance of the 2nd Global Day of Action against Waste Incineration, by far the most massive demonstration of public opposition to incinerators on a global scale. Spearheaded by GAIA, the yearly anti-incineration day of action intends to highlight the health, environmental, economic and social problems associated with waste burning and other polluting waste management practices, and at the same time promote safe and sustainable alternatives for preventing waste and managing society's discards.

The actions also coincide with the first day of the Seventh Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 7) meeting of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Convention which has been ratified in Japan aims to eliminate the most persistent toxic substances known to science, including the cancer-causing dioxins and furans.

This year's action surpasses the number of participating groups from last year's Global Day of Action that drew 126 groups from 54 countries.

Contacts:
For information on local issues and activities, please contact Junichi
Sato, toxics campaigner( mobile phone: 81-90-2253-0327) and Keiko
Shirokawa, press officer(mobile phone : 81-90-3470-7884), of Greenpeace
Japan (telephone 813-5338-9800)

For information on GAIA and the Global Day of Action,
please visit www.no-burn.org,
and on Greenpeace Japan,
http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/campaign/toxics/zerowaste/

Junichi Sato
Toxics Campaigner
Greenpeace Japan
8-11-13 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku TOKYO 160-0023
tel. 81-3-5338-9800
fax. 81-3-5338-9817