NewWays for Environmental and Social Change

TOKYO, Aug. 20 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The farm ministry aims to support projects by businesses and local governments to recycle disposable chopsticks as solid fuel or ethanol, ministry officials said Monday.The aim is to promote the use of biomass fuel as well as raise public awareness about the need to conserve resources through a recycling program involving items that are a fixture in people’s lives, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries officials said.

The ministry plans to call on the Ministry of Finance to allocate money to fund the program in the fiscal 2008 government budget, they said.

The program is also timely in that global climate will be a major topic on the agenda at the Group of Eight industrialized nations’ economic summit scheduled for next June in Toya Lake, Hokkaido Prefecture, the officials said.

Disposable, wooden chopsticks are used in a large number of restaurants in Japan and domestic consumption is estimated at 90,000 tons a year, or 200 pairs per person, according to the findings by the ministry and other organizations.

Most restaurants currently just throw used chopsticks away without ever reusing them.

The ministry plans to select a certain number of cities and towns across the country to participate in the program, in which they will install boxes to collect used chopsticks at restaurants in their areas, the officials said.

Contractors will then transport them to facilities that will turn the chopsticks into wood pellets or ethanol, they said.

Wood pellets are a type of fuel usually made by using heat and pressure to compact sawdust and used paper into cylindrical shapes.

Through the program, the ministry will try to estimate the necessary recycling costs and conduct research into other matters to figure out better ways to recycle chopsticks, the officials said.

The ministry is hopeful that the program will serve as an occasion for consciousness-raising about corporations’ social responsibilities, they said.

The ministry is also considering putting collection boxes in residential neighborhoods and at convenience stores to encourage people to take part in the recycling effort, the officials said.

There are about 30 facilities producing wooden pellets across the country and ethanol-producing facilities are located in Osaka and Okayama prefectures.

Initially, localities situated close to the processing facilities will be chosen to take part in the program in order to cut down on transportation costs, the officials said.