By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-08-08 12:37:01 | Updated at 2026-08-08 12:49:11
44 minutes ago
In areas of Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture hit by a major earthquake in July, collecting and incinerating massive amounts of household waste has become difficult.
Since the earthquake, which registered the maximum 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, household waste has kept piling up, posing serious challenges for municipalities.
In the city of Uki, the volume of household waste has exceeded the processing capacity of the city’s incineration plant. The excess has been transported about 50km to the city of Amakusa.
Uki’s trash problem is related to another problem: Water supply remains cut off for approximately 10,000 households there.
“A large amount of paper plates and plastic bottles have been discarded, resulting in more than double the usual amount of waste,” the city official said. The city government plans to extend the operation hours of the incineration plant to address the issue.
Yatsushiro City has also been struggling with collecting waste. Garbage trucks cannot enter some areas due to damaged roads, so light trucks are used instead.
“We cannot finish the work during the day because of the increasing amount of garbage and the road conditions,” a city official said. “We are compelled to work late into the night.”
In Hikawa, where roads have buckled and sunk, the locations of garbage collection sites have been changed in some areas.
According to the Environment Ministry, in the aftermaths of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake and the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, some areas relied on vehicles and personnel from outside the prefecture for garbage collection, due to the increased amount of waste and disruption of local collection services.
The ministry official said: “We would like to coordinate (with local municipalities) to help handle the garbage if such requests come to us.” THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
