No. 8 Acceptance of disaster waste in Onagawa Town, Miyagi Prefecture

(Published in the June 15, 2012 issue of Public Relations Inagi)

　The clear blue sky, the chirping of seabirds, the sound of heavy machinery clearing debris in the distance, and the toppled building in front of me... It was an empty place, washed away by the tsunami.
On May 8, 2012, as the administrator of the Tamagawa Sanitation Association, I visited the waste sorting and treatment facility in Onagawa Town with the mayor, who is the deputy administrator, the president and vice chairperson of the union assembly, and the representatives of the constituent cities. I did.
Onagawa Town, a fishing port surrounded by mountains on three sides, has very little flat land and cannot secure temporary storage space for rubble on public land, so they have no choice but to pile up the rubble on private land.
The amount of waste generated by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake is approximately 11 years' worth of waste in Iwate Prefecture, and 19 years' worth of waste in Miyagi Prefecture. On the other hand, the town of Onagawa has an estimated 444,000 tons of rubble, which is actually more than 100 years' worth of rubble, and unless this large amount of rubble is disposed of, it will be impossible to move forward with the town's reconstruction plan.
The sorting of waste for proper disposal was more thorough than we had imagined. After the primary sorting of metals and concrete shells using heavy machinery, the metals are separated using magnets and re-sorted using a sieving machine called a trommel, before being sent to the final manual sorting line. Masu. They are carefully separated into non-combustible materials such as bottles, glass, concrete shells, stones, and ceramics, metal objects, combustible materials such as wood, waste plastic, paper waste, fiber waste, tatami mats, leather and rubber, and hazardous materials such as asbestos-containing materials and batteries. I did.
In addition, the radiation levels of combustible waste being transferred to various parts of the sorting line were measured and published on the website from time to time.
The waste piled up in the temporary storage area was nothing more than rubble, but after sorting, it was reduced to only combustible garbage, mainly wood, and was barely noticeable even when touched with bare hands.
Regarding wide-area treatment in Onagawa Town, a basic agreement was signed in November last year between the Tokyo Metropolitan Mayor's Association, Special Ward Mayor's Association, Onagawa Town, Miyagi Prefecture, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to ensure smooth processing at incineration plants in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
The Tamagawa Sanitation Association, which Inagi City is a member of, has
(1) The response must be in line with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's business framework;
(2) Ensuring safety;
(3) Holding briefing sessions for local residents;
(4) Responding throughout the Tama region;
These are the prerequisites for acceptance.
At the end of January this year, the Tokyo City Town and Village Cleaning Council, which is made up of local governments in the Tama area, announced that seven factories in the Tama area that meet the facility standards (Hachioji City Tobuki Incineration Plant, Machida Recycling Culture Center, Hino City Clean A formal request was made to the Center, Ryusenen Association, Nishitama Sanitation Association, Tamagawa Sanitation Association, and Tama New Town Environment Association. For this reason, we are proceeding with procedures to confirm safety through on-site inspections and hold briefing sessions for residents.
From now on, discussions have been completed with Hinode Town, where the final disposal site is located, regarding the acceptance of incinerated ash discharged from these incineration plants, so treatment will begin in the Tama area following the 23 wards where treatment is already underway. It is likely that we will continue to do so.
I have heard that Onagawa Town plans to dispose of all of the rubble by the end of this fiscal year. Unlike surrounding cities such as Ishinomaki City, Onagawa Town is unable to secure temporary storage space on public land, so time is a key factor in the success of recovery. Thank you for your understanding.