Recycling centre & Social Enterprise (at a rehabilitation centre)

We went to a private recycling centre in Wakayama where they mechanically and hand sort steel, aluminium and PET plastic. There was a pile of electronic waste that I could see out of the window and I asked what would happen to that.



The Managing Director of the company told me that they would ship it to China where it was cheaper to deal with! I was surprised at the honesty of the answer!

Japan seems to be very adept at teaching and educating – children of local schools in particular – about the merits of recycling. This centre had a monster that would shake and make noise if the wrong waste was put into the wrong bucket, and a superhero that would commend the correct action.

The centre had invested heavily in the last 10 years in machinery that helped them re-mould PET bottles into household wares like drinks beakers, recycling bins, washing up bowls and garden planters.



This was a small company and there seemed to be some other competitors in the area. Wakayama prefecture only stipulate the separation of 6 items however (clothes, paper, steel, aluminium, plastic and paper) whereas Tokyo area requires the separation of 12 items!

In the afternoon, we visited a “Rehabilitation Centre” for people with physical and mental disabilities. Initially, I thought that this was of more benefit to Sarah and Trish but they also had a sort of social enterprise where on-site, 40 people with a range of disabilities work for Matsuishta (aka Panasonic). They are paid a wage and benefit from the seniority system. All the shop floor is modified to accommodate wheelchair users; including raised floors, hand rails and ramps.



The company is profit making, though these cover salaries and any additional money is ploughed back into the company (our equivalent of a Social Enterprise?). 10 years ago, the company had made enough profit to refurbish the entire building; which demonstrates the success of the business model.