Recycling plastic the Japanese way

Reduce and reuse: Workers unloading recyclable resources from Tokyo’s Katsushika city at the Ichikawa Kankyo Engineering recycling centre. — AFP

Tokyo: At a recycling plant outside Tokyo, workers in face masks pick through an unending torrent of plastic rubbish, fuelled by a national obsession with pristine packaging – and famously strict rules that ensure much of it is reclaimed and reused.

Some 10 tonnes of recyclable plastics are brought in every day to be processed at the Ichikawa Kankyo Engineering centre, where workers hover over conveyor belts removing any stray items or contaminants.