Priority Program - Sustainable Material Cycles
Toward a Sound Material-Cycle Society ( pamphlet )
Japan must realize a sound material-cycle society in line with the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), ensuring the appropriate management of material cycles and waste disposal. We are supporting such a social transition in the near future through relevant research activities such as developing advanced technologies and systems and proposing policy options that are in accordance with international principles.
1 Designing and evaluating material cycle systems and policy/management techniques for the near future
We forecast near-future material flows that will be affected by temporal changes in social conditions and set strategic targets that will lead to the realization of a sound material-cycle society. In addition, we design material-cycle systems, relevant policies, and the management techniques necessary to achieve the targets. We have the following research objectives.
- Projecting the amount of recyclable resources and waste that will be produced in the next 10 to 20 years and setting strategic targets using relevant indicators for material-cycle management.
- Designing concrete scenarios including technologies and policies, and identifying the specific issues to be solved to achieve such targets at both the local and national level.
2 Management of hazardous and valuable substances in life cycles of materials and products
We focus on the behavior and flow of chemical substances through product life cycles from their roles as both contaminants and resources. We then evaluate the validity of related policies on risk management and resource recycling for such substances. This includes:
- Investigating the behavior of plastic additives (e.g., brominated flame retardants) and countermeasures for their control during the use, waste treatment, and recycling processes of plastics. Addressing application issues of potential alternatives.
- Evaluating the environmental release of hazardous metals especially in waste recycling or treatment processes. Proposing recyclability indices and recovery measures for hazardous and valuable metals from materials, products, and waste.
- Establishing standardized testing methods for the safety and quality management of secondary materials originating from waste. Developing guidelines for setting safety levels for the materials.
3 Developing win-win resource recycling technology for waste biomass
We are targeting not only the reduction of waste but also the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the creation of renewable energies and resources from waste biomass. We are developing material recycling and energy recovery technology systems that efficiently convert waste materials into industrial/agricultural resources and renewable energy. We are also building new systems that link “venous” to “arterial” industries (i.e. waste processing to primary production) by means of mass conversion technologies. We have the following research targets.
- Developing technologies to efficiently produce hydrogen, methane, biofuel, feedstuff, and bioplastics from waste biomass, to recover phosphorus from wastewater treatment processes, and to improve the energy efficiency of material recycling systems.
- Designing a technological system for a certain region with a specific nature. Demonstrating the developed technologies based on the economical and environmental aspects of the region.
- Integrating material recycling/energy recovery processes into the entire system centering on basic industries such as energy, steel and cement production.
4 Establishing appropriate management networks and technological systems to support sound international material cycles
We analyze the transaction of waste materials as resources in the international market, and determine the environmental impact of those material cycles. We develop and apply technology systems that will contribute to delivering low environmental loads and be applicable to developing countries in Asia and other regions. We design and support networks in order to manage domestic and international material-cycle systems in an appropriate way. This includes:
- Analyzing material flow of traded recyclable resources.
- Proposing evaluation techniques and policies to ensure the proper management of international material cycles.
- Identifying environmentally sound waste management technologies such as appropriate waste sorting and bio-eco engineering. Illustrating the project design of a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for landfill methane reduction.
