They throw them into trash bins for plastic bottle caps, of course!

PET bottle caps trash bin. Found in Adachi-ku City Hall, Tokyo.

In Japan, recycling is part of daily life. Besides separating caps from plastic bottles, people usually remove the labels from bottles as well before dumping them into recycle bins.

There even exists a special organization — The Council  for PET Bottle Recycling — established in 1993 for promotion, research and study of plastic bottle recycling.

A law for container and packaging recycling which also includes plastic bottles has been enforced in April 1997 by the Japan Ministry of the Environment.

In Japan, you can easily find plenty of old things. One of these is Jomon Sugi (縄文杉) which is officially the oldest known tree in Japan. It is estimated to be between 2170 and 7200 years old — exact age is unknown.

Discovery of the tree in 1968 on the small southern island Yakushima sparked moves to protect the forests on this island which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Jomon Sugi, the oldest and largest known specimen of Cryptomeria japonica, is located on the north face of Miyanoura-dake, the highest peak on Yakushima, at an elevation of 1300 meters (4300 ft). Here are some more technical details: the tree’s height is 25.3 meters (83 ft), trunk circumference is 16.2 meters (53 ft), and the volume measures approximately 300 cubic meters (10,000 cubic ft). For visitors, access is restricted to an observation deck at a distance of 15 meters (50 ft) from the tree.

The island of Yakushima has developed a very rich, interconnected ecosystem. As many as 30 different species of trees, herbs, plants, and mosses have been observed growing from the surface of some of the greater sugi trees here (via link).

Top: Jomon Sugi, the oldest tree in Japan (source: Wikimedia Commons). Bottom left: size of tree compared to a human (visitors aren't allowed to take photos this close at the actual tree). Bottom right: location of the Yakushima island.

At the Automotive NEXT Industry Fair 2010 in Tokyo last week Waseda Environmental Institute introduced a next-generation, ultra-light electric vehicle called ULV-III.

The vehicle, designed for one person, weights only 72.6 kg (160 lbs). According to the developer, it could be used as a mobile advertising medium for environmental campaigns or as a practical personal vehicle instead of a rental bicycle in areas where train stations are a long way apart, to get from one station to another.

The ULV can reach maximum speed of 40 km/h (25 mph), has a 400 W motor and can be charged in 4 hours. It can travel continuously for 80 km (50 miles). Charging the vehicle will cost you only 35 Yen or about $0.40. In comparison with Toyota Prius, the cost is ten times lower per kilometer.

The Waseda Environmental Institute recently supplied one of these ULVs to a restaurant where it was put to use as a delivery vehicle.

ACROS Fukuoka (opened 1995) in the city of Fukuoka is covered by 35,000 plants from 76 species. The rooftops and terraces collect rainfall and offer living spaces for insects and birds. The complex, located in the heart of the city, has large-scale cultural facilities, shops, galleries, a museum, music hall and open spaces for recreation.

As global currents seem to suggest, in the turbulent times we are entering, green technology won’t be just one of the most profitable markets but an urgency if we as human race want to remain alive in this increasingly harmful environment which we have been corroding with toxins of all kinds, colors, shapes and flavors for the past hundred years.

Japan, one of the leading initiators of green technologies and where living in a healthy environment presents a significant part of lifestyle, has been investing for long years into innovations that aim to reduce consumption of natural resources and promote preservation of the environment.

According to a global survey by CERNA (Centre of Industrial Economics) in February 2009, Japan owns 40,8% of all world patents in green technologies in years 1998 – 2003. The United States came in second with 12.8% of patents.

Table: Top 10 countries with most patented inventions in green technologies

Source: http://colli239.fts.educ.msu.edu/2003/12/31/japan-owns-40-of-worlds-patents-in-green-technology-2009/

We are living in turbulent times where bees are dying rapidly in large numbers because of profitable pesticides and pollution. If this trend keeps going on, one day we’ll be filling up our plates with artificial food, compressed in colorful Pfizer tablets with chemical taste of green salad, beans, strawberries, blueberries and other natural goods that we’ll know only from pictures and ballads.

Science says that about one third of all food we eat depends on pollination from bees, and about 40 percent of all bee population in the world has vanished in the past decade.

Project co-founder Atsuo Tanaka on top of the Pulp and Paper Building in Ginza. (Photo source: The Japan Times)

The Ginza Bee Project

Well-aware that those numbers can’t mean anything good, are the members of a very successful project called Ginza Hachimitsu Project (The Ginza Bee Project). Five years ago, the group set itself a task of creating a bee-friendly space on top of a building in Tokyo’s Ginza district where bees will be able to produce honey.

On top of the 11-story Pulp & Paper Building in Ginza, this glitzy area of luxurious boutiques and department stores, members of the Ginza Bee Project take care of 300,000 Western and Japanese bees.

Every morning the bees take off into the sky from their wooden hives in search of flowers for pollination and nectar. Because there are many parks in Tokyo, the bees can find a lot of greenery in the area of just 2 kms (1.2 miles), like the Hibiya Park, Hamarikyu Gardens and the vast parks of the Imperial Palace. The roadside trees are also a good source of nectar, as are small flower and vegetable gardens that many Japanese grow on balconies of their apartment buildings.

The amount of produced honey increases every year. The Ginpachi bees — as locals named these bees in Ginza — produced over 760 kgs (1675 lbs) of honey in 2009 alone. The honey is then sold to local stores and pattiseries in limited numbers as a final product or as an ingredient for sweets and cake-making.

But there’s more to the project than just making honey. Ever since they brought bees to Ginza, the local cherry trees began to produce cherries which wasn’t happening before when the blossoms were not pollinated. Birds began eating the cherries and the amount of small insects, beneficial to the environment, increased in the area.

At the start of the project some people were concerned about safety as they thought that keeping so many bees in such a densely populated area could be dangerous for people. After the group thoroughly explained the behavior of bees to the tenants of the building, they successfully agreed to place three beehives on the rooftop.

According to the group, the bees are very gentle creatures and would attack only if suddenly surprised. Ever since the project was launched, there was never a case where anyone would be attacked by the bees, even though there are masses of people walking on the streets near the building every day. Quite the contrary — the Ginpachi bees have become some sort of a mascot for Ginza.

The Ginpachi honey, produced by the bees in Ginza. (Photo source: http://martinjapan.blogspot.com/2009/06/beekeeping-allowed-in-ginza-tokyo-why.html)

According to one of the beekeepers, Fujiwara, the Ginza bees are even healthier than those in the countryside where farmers often use pesticides. He explains that pesticides — not exhaust fumes — are the biggest threat to the bee population because a bee’s lifespan is only about 30 days and therefore any toxins they might get from the air don’t accumulate to any considerable extent in their bodies. Fujiwara adds that bees fly in the air only for about a week to ten days and they spend the rest of their lives cleaning their hives.

A project for the future

“Our future vision for Ginza is not a place where buildings compete for height but a place where people and small insects could live in harmony with nature,” says Atsuo Tanaka, co-founder of the project. “We believe that bees and people’s appreciation for them will help build an urban environment, full of greenery in the spirit of satoyama (satoyama is a Japanese word that means a traditional environment where people coexist in harmony with nature and its resources). We will be happy if our project could in some way help in the future urban planning in Japan.”

The Ginza Bee Project has received support from the city government and has gained attention from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, students and people who live in the area. In an effort to create an even friendlier environment for the bees, the Ginza Green Project was launched in 2007 with aim of growing flower and vegetable gardens on the rooftops of other buildings in the district. The project also looks to create green spaces that would help lower the heat retained in roads and concrete, to promote the principle of “grow local, eat local” and to encourage interpersonal relationships among people who help with the project and who may have otherwise been complete strangers.

Taking care of the gardens on top of the buildings. (Photo source: http://beegarden.blog62.fc2.com)

Photo source: http://beegarden.blog62.fc2.com

The Ginza Green Project started out on the rooftop of the Matsuya department store where today 30 employees voluntarily take care of the gardens after they finish their regular job. The customers are also interested in the activities on the roof, so the gardens are open to the public. Matsuya sells bread and various sweets that use the ingredients they grow on the roof of their store.

In this article for The Japan Times Atsuo Tanaka says: “A bee’s average lifespan is 30 days. In this short period, a bee produces only half of a spoon of honey. This tells us how precious are their lives.”

UPDATE: Some of our readers were curious if this type of beekeeping takes place in any other cities around the world. According to this article at MSNBC, some other beekeeping cities are Paris, Berlin, London and Washington D.C. Urban beekeeping is also encouraged in San Francisco. What makes The Ginza Bee Project in Tokyo so distinct is the fact it is carried out by a large group of people who have a long-term vision that makes it possible for the project to expand and give birth to new ideas, useful to people and the environment without being limited only to beekeeping, for example, The Ginza Green Project. On the other hand, some other world metropolitan areas have banned beekeeping. In New York City, for instance, this type of illegal beekeeping is punishable with a $2000 fine (the ban has been in effect since 1999).

What do you think? Could other cities around the world benefit in a long run from a project like The Ginza Bee Project? Write your thoughts in the comments!

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Sources:

- The Japan Times: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090816×1.html
– Japan for Sustainability: http://www.japanfs.org/en/mailmagazine/newsletter/pages/029489.html
- TreeHugger: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/urban-beekeepers-lift-ban.php
- The Ginza Bee Project: http://www.gin-pachi.jp