Having transformed itself from a ‘gray’ polluted city to a progressive ‘green’ one, Kitakyushu (Japan) is making further improvements, hoping to achieve the title of the world capital of sustainable development.

The city’s strategies include the Kitakyushu Eco-Town Plan, which emphasizes the promotion of environmental and recycling industries. The aim of the program is to see all waste as material for other industries, reduce the waste stream to zero emissions, and to foster a resource recycling society.

The Plan includes specific projects to recycle electric appliances, automobiles, plastic bottles and other recyclable wastes; advanced research on the waste disposal and recycling technologies, and to generate new industries from recycling resources and energy as city-wide activities.

Waste management approaches also reduce transportation-related emissions and overall energy savings by reusing items that would otherwise have to be manufactured. Also, a dependence on landfills can be reduced through waste prevention and recycling measures, resulting in the further elimination of greenhouse gas emissions. For more information on the importance of waste management, please visit www.iclei.org/ccp.

Kitakyushu is one of 21 local governments in Japan that are currently Members of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. For more information on ICLEI and its activities in Japan, please visit www.iclei.org/japan.

Source: Aiming to Become the World Capital of Sustainable Development, 4 July 2007.