When we talk about Eco Town, our mind will automatically shift to a scenario of having a low carbon emission, low waste generation, more greenery, cohesiveness in neighbourliness and social just city. I believe this is common understanding amongst many of us. But, i am proven wrong after listening to Mr Takayuki Yamashita of the Environmental Bureau, Kitakyushu City Council. Currently, there are about 26 Eco-Town in Japan with the pioneer and leading example one in Kitakyushu.
According to him, Eco-Town Project is a national initiative of Japanese Government to develop industries related to waste recycling in order to inculcate a material resource recycling society. The Eco-Town is an industrial area comprising the research, practical research and industrial development component. It is an area to continue researching on turning the waste onto raw material and to commercialise research. The Government is subsidising heavily for the research and commercialisation to materialise. This sector is to become new business for Japan. Perhaps this is called green technology.
The World is worried about scarcity of natural resources and the government is urging the people to be thrifty in using resources. However, the non-renewable resources will be dried up one day if the population growth and consumption rate is kept increasing. While it is logical to ask people to conserve natural resources, not many have actually looked into the waste we generated. We all talk about turning the waste into wealth, but nothing concrete has been done.
The Eco-town project in Japan is realising the believe. And they are turning unwanted waste into raw material. This will not only prolong the life span of the natural resources, but to make the price of goods more competitive as sourcing natural resources is getting difficult now. As the pioneer in this field, the Japanese are also able to export their expertise and skills to other countries.
If Malaysia is not doing the same, and do it fast, perhaps one day we will become a country to export waste with payment. Countries like Japan will import the waste as source of resources and along the process to charge the exporter. This scenario is similar to what happened in early 1960s in which we have to export our tin and rubber to the developed countries and in return paid higher premium for importing the products made from these resources from them due to our capacity problem. This economic model is now recurring again, I believe will be very significant in years to come. For not having the same experience, we have to learn and to start the Eco-Town alike project in Malaysia.
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