From collapsed houses to concrete: Disposing of debris resulting from the quakes was a huge problem, but governments came together to find an optimal solution: recycling. As part of this program, some seven thousand tons of wood waste were transferred to Yatsushiro, where it was chipped and loaded onto ships to be sent to a Taiheiyo Cement plant in Niigata for use as fuel (Kumamoto does not have facilities equipped to handle such fuel, so over half of wood waste was transferred to facilities outside of the prefecture). The resulting ash was then used as an ingredient in the cement.
On October 31, the first of several return shipments arrived back in Yatsushiro to deliver the cement, which will be used in reconstruction. Though transport costs added to the financial burden of local governments, as one official said, “The method was necessitated by the haste of recovery.” A Taiheiyo official remarked, “Separation of recyclable items is complex, but we hope to increase recyclable categories in future.” The photo below shows three tons of resulting cement being pumped from a transport ship to a holding facility in Yatsushiro. - William
