Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society:Experience of Kitakyushu City, Japan

This paper presents the experience of Kitakyushu City, one of the environmental model cities in Japan, in achieving an efficient and closed-loop management of material resources, reducing the amount of waste produced and to be landfilled. Based on the national legislation, Kitakyushu City has developed its first Basic Plan for Municipal Solid Waste Management in 2001 aiming to achieve the target of 20% waste reduction and 25% increase in recycling activities by 2011. It discusses the implementation of the basic plan, key policy and strategic measures have taken, achievements and lessons learned that may help for other local governments that are planning to modernise their municipal solid waste management (MSWM). The basic information was gathered by reviewing the literature of the City of Kitakyushu.