2 Other Reasons Why Municipalities in Japan Want Disaster Debris

The first and foremost is a fat subsidy they will get from the national government (which is beyond broke, so it will tax the citizens today and for the foreseeable future) for saying yes to having the disaster debris contaminated with radioactive materials and toxic chemicals shipped to their cities and towns to burn and bury the resulting ashes.

But it is slowly emerging that there are equally short-term, other reasons these local politicians and bureaucrats want the contaminated debris.

1. The incinerators, if they are state-of-the-art, need more garbage even to operate, so the disaster debris is god-sent;

2. The incinerators, if not state-of-the-art, badly need upgrading or even building new ones (or so they say), and by saying yes to the debris the municipalities will get the subsidy from the national government for the upgrade or building new ones.

1. State-of-the-art incinerators cannot operate without enough garbage

This has been known among people who has been following the disaster debris processing, but now even the major tabloid magazine picked up.

Here's from Shukan Post Seven (3/14/2012):

...政府は瓦礫を全国の自治体に運んで焼却する「広域処理」を掲げているが、各地で「放射能を持ってくるな」と住民の反対運動が広がり、野田首相はついに「引き受け自治体にカネを出す」とまで言い出した。

The government wants to do the "wide-area disposal" by bringing the disaster debris to municipalities all over Japan and burn it, but the opposition by the local residents has spread who tell their governments "Don't bring the radiation." Desperate, Prime Minister Noda is saying "We'll give you money if you take the debris" to the municipal governments.

　新聞やテレビはその状況を、「瓦礫の押し付け合い」「住民エゴ」と報じているが、実態はまるで違う。水面下では、瓦礫は「カネの成る木」となり、「奪い合い」が起きているのだ。

Newspapers and TV report it as "forcing the debris" or "egotism of the residents", but the reality is totally different. Below the surface, disaster debris is money, and the parties involved are competing with each other to get the debris.

　意外に思えるかもしれないが、日本は「ゴミ不足」の状態にある。全国のゴミ焼却施設は約1600か所。全世界の7割の焼却場が集中している。ある自治体の清掃局担当者が語る。

You may be surprised to hear, but Japan "lacks garbage". There are 1,600 garbage incineration facilities in Japan, which is home to 70% of incineration facilities in the world. A person in charge of municipal waste management says:

「焼却場の多くは1基数百億円で建設された最新鋭施設で、有害なダイオキシンや煙を外部に出さないようにできている。だが、そうした焼却場には“弱点”がある。稼働させるには、24時間、一定の温度で燃やし続けなければならないのです。そのため、燃料のゴミが足りなくなっている」

"Most of these incineration plants are state-of-the-art facilities that cost tens of billions of yen [hundreds of millions of US dollars] per plant. They do not let out toxic substances like dioxin and smoke. But there is a week point in these plants. In order to operate, the incinerators needs to burn at a certain temperature for 24 hours. So there is a lack of fuel, that is, garbage."

　そこに東日本大震災で大量の瓦礫が生まれた。大半は倒壊した家屋の木クズなど可燃ゴミだ。

Then the March 11, 2011 generated a large amount of debris. Most of the debris is flammable, such as wood debris from the houses that collapsed.

「各自治体の清掃部門は瓦礫が喉から手が出るほど欲しい。震災瓦礫の輸送費は国が丸抱えで補助金もつく。これほど都合のいい燃料はありません」（同前）

"Waste management divisions of municipalities want disaster debris very badly. The cost to transport the debris will all be paid by the national government, and it will come with a subsidy. There is no better fuel than the disaster debris."

環境省は震災直後の昨年5月、第1次補正予算で3500億円の瓦礫処理予算を組み、広域処理で全国に輸送する方針を決めて受け入れ先を募集した。すると500か所の自治体や企業が名乗りをあげ、なんと沖縄県も受け入れを表明した。

Last May, right after the disaster, the Ministry of the Environment set the budget for disaster debris disposal for 350 billion yen [US$4.16 billion] in the 1st supplementary budget, and decided on the wide-area disposal by shipping the debris all over Japan. 500 municipalities and businesses have said yes to the debris, including Okinawa Prefecture.

　東北から沖縄まで瓦礫を海上輸送するとなるととんでもない運搬費用がかかる。瓦礫の広域処理で全国にゴミ輸送ネットワーク利権を張りめぐらそうというのが環境省の狙いで、産廃業界は特需に沸いている。

To transport the debris from Tohoku to Okinawa by sea would cost a fortune. The Ministry of the Environment's true aim is to build a network of concessions on garbage transportation by wide-area disposal of disaster debris. The industrial waste processing industry is booming with this special procurement.

For example, the state-of-the art incinerator (melting furnace) in Shimada City in Shizuoka Prefecture (where the mayor single-handedly decided he would just burn the debris against the strong opposition from the residents) cannot operate unless it is at least 60% filled with garbage and debris.

Why are there so many state-of-the-art incinerators in a country with fast-declining population? My guess is "the Lost Decade or Two" in Japan (going into the 3rd decade...) - economic stagnation after the real estate bubble made much, much worse by the government's incessant Keynesian intervention of creating useless public work projects. That money went to roads, bridges, river embankment, breakwater, big construction projects like half-empty Minato Mirai in Yokohama or small construction projects like municipal incineration plants.

2. Aging incinerators need upgrade or rebuild, and now is the chance to have it funded by the national government by accepting the debris

The case in point is Takeo City in Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, as far away you can get (with the exception of Okinawa) from radioactive materials from Fukushima I Nuke Plant.

42-year-old Keisuke Hiwatashi, the mayor of the city and a former bureaucrat at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, was all for accepting the debris last November, but the reaction from the residents when they knew about it (mostly via the Internet) was fast and furious, and the mayor had to table the idea.

But now, the City Assembly just passed the resolution demanding the city to accept the debris, with only the Communist Party assemblymen dissented. The ostensible reason is of course "to help the recovery of Tohoku", the "kizuna" spirit that Mr. Blustein laments sorely lacking in the selfish Japanese in the post-disaster Japan.

But I think I've found the more likely reason. I looked up what kind of facility the city has for incineration. After some digging, I found that the disaster debris would be burned at "Kito Clean Center". So I googled "Kito Clean Center", and up popped the newsletter from 2007 by the Kito Wide Area Municipalities Union in Takeo City. In it, the general manager of the union says:

現在の杵藤クリーンセンターは焼却施設、粗大ごみ処理施設および埋立処分場を備え平成元年４月から稼動し、途中平成１３年度にダイオキシン等の削減を図るための排ガス高度処理施設整備工事で施設の改良を行い今日まで運転をおこなっておりますが、施設は設置後１９年を迎え、いたる個所で老朽化による改修修繕費に莫大な経費が必要になっております。そのため新たな施設の建設が必要になり．．．

The current Kito Clean Center started operation in April of 1988 with the incineration facility, oversize garbage processing facility, and a landfill. In 2001, the facility was upgraded with the installation of exhaust gas treatment facility in order to reduce the emission of dioxin. It's been 19 years since the center started operation, and the aging facilities needs constant repairs that cost a large amount of money. So we will need to build a new facility...

On checking the semi-annual newsletters, there is no mention of a new facility being build.

On March 4, Prime Minister Noda said his government would pay the municipalities for expanding or building the disposal sites. On March 5, Minister of the Environment Goshi Hosono promised that the national government will compensate for the "shortened" life of the incinerators and disposal sites because of processing the disaster debris starting the new fiscal 2012 (in April); compensation amount will be determined by the weight of the disaster debris that the municipalities take.

So here's the chance for Takeo City to do the much needed (or so they say) upgrade of their aging incinerator with the national government's money as long as they accept disaster debris contaminated with toxic substances and radioactive materials. Clearly, the bigger the amount of disaster debris they take in the better.

What a country.

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