Japan helps reduce carbon footprint, snare business

PALAU - A Japanese green solutions company is working to forge business opportunities through creating a low carbon recycling society in Palau, the western Pacific island nation recently visited by Japan's emperor and empress.

"Sorting waste can generate electricity to power a fan like this," said an official from Amita Institute for Sustainable Economies. The man held a small electric fan as he stood in front of locals in Koror, the biggest city in Palau. He then distributed buckets and bags among the residents and demonstrated how to divide waste.

The institute, a unit of Kyoto-based Amita Holdings, is carrying out the grass-roots educational programme as part of a research project launched last year to examine the new concept of waste separation in the island nation.

Amita Institute plans to create a recycling society in Koror as well as the nation's other islands through a waste sorting system aimed at reusing recyclable refuse such as plastics for solid fuels as well as using kitchen garbage together with sewage sludge for biogas and liquid fertilizers.

The project envisions establishing the use of recycled materials such as solid fuel to power air conditioners and liquid fertilizer to grow grass-like plants used for biofuel.

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