Waste & Recycling

A team of nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency urged Japan this week to reach a decision quickly on what to do with treated water that contains low toxicity radioactive tritium, which is accumulating at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

For Yumi Someya, Tokyo is an untapped oil field, full of potential to generate electricity.The precious fuel, however, doesn’t exist underground. It’s a resource sitting in the kitchens of millions of Japanese homes — cooking oil.

The Environment Ministry said Wednesday it plans to urge companies to reduce their use of microplastics, amid heightened global concern over marine pollution.

For Japan to achieve its goal of reducing household food waste by 50 percent by fiscal 2030 compared with 2000, consumers and manufacturers need to change how they think about food, participants at a recent meeting on food loss said.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry will embark on an investigation into the extent to which tiny plastic pieces, known as microplastics, are contained in sewage from ships in order to prevent marine pollution, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

Since a catastrophic nuclear accident seven years ago, Fukushima fishermen have made painstaking efforts to rebuild their livelihood, assiduously testing the radioactivity levels of their catches to ensure safety. Now, rapidly accumulating wastewater from the crippled power plant is again threatening this hard-won business recovery.