An Indonesian worker removes plastic and other garbage clogging the Citarum river on March 25, 2016 in West Java, Indonesia. (Jefta Images/Barcroft Media via Forbes)

Becoming ‘Trash Manager’: Japan Wants to Help Southeast Asia’s Trash Issue

As a nation that is known for in waste management innovation since the economy booming in the 1960s, Japan is hoping to help Southeast Asia nations to deal with the serious pollution challenges.

Waste management is indeed a dirty business, but due to a global garbage woes worsen this could be lucrative for the country’s income and Japan is taking a step to cash in on the refuse boom—as some financial analysts estimated that the world market for trash incinerating power plant will be worth $80 billion by 2022 and it’s believed that this method could reduce pollution.

A report from Nikkei Asian Review showed that Japan has set about US$18.6 million in its fiscal budget for a public-private consortium in 2019. It will develop a proposal and bid on waste management in Southeast Asia, with the goal of winning contracts for Japanese companies and some goodwill. The environment ministry’s program will be publicized at the G-20 summit that will be held in Osaka on June 28 and 29. Japan seeks to promote the green aspects of its plan and environmental leadership on climate change, innovative approaches to power, and plastic litter management which aligned with the focus of this year meeting’s main themes.

Japan is offering service packages targeting specifics needs of individual ASEAN countries, that include waste disposal systems, personnel training, and recycling. To execute the plans properly, the ministry is putting together private companies with different expertise in aspects of trash management.

There are currently 10 trial power plant projects in 10 member states of ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam where China is also selling waste-to-power plant technology. However, Japan is positioning itself to provide more than that in order to corner the market before China.

Source: https://qz.com/1650893/japan-wants-to-become-southeast-asias-trash-manager/