Technical Show Yokohama 2025 was held at Pacifico Yokohama for three days from February 5th to 7th, 2025. This event is the largest general trade fair for industrial technology and products in Kanagawa Prefecture, and in 2025, various companies exhibited under the theme of "Creating Technology, Creating the Future."
This article reports on a special discussion that took place at a special seminar venue within the exhibition hall between "cleaning comedian" Takizawa Shuichi (Machine Guns), who has a career as a garbage collector, Hara Kazumasa, Representative Director and President of Macnica, and Kanagawa Prefecture Governor Kuroiwa Yuji, who rushed over on the day (the content is an excerpt).
▲ On the first day of the event, the venue was almost full despite being held early in the day. This shows that many people were interested in the theme of "reducing waste."
Part 1 (Takizawa x Kuroiwa x Hara)
The event began with a greeting from facilitator Takizawa, who said, "I've been a comedian for 27 years, and on the side I also work as a garbage collector. It wasn't a job I originally wanted to do, but as I worked there I began to think seriously about the garbage problem, and my perspective on it changed."
Kuroiwa continues, "In today's decarbonized society, what to do with garbage is a big issue. It's important that everyone naturally separates their garbage and establishes that practice."
Next, Takizawa shared an episode that shocked him when he became a garbage collector. He explained that one garbage truck can collect about 2 tons of garbage, and that with six round trips a day, they collect 10 to 12 tons of garbage. He also explained that the Ministry of the Environment's website states that the lifespan of a final disposal site in Japan is 23 to 24 years.
When Takizawa asked, "Are there any measures being taken to address this situation?" Kuroiwa introduced the Kanagawa Prefecture's "Kanagawa Plastic Waste Zero Declaration." The goal is to recycle all plastic waste, and it began in 2018 when plastic waste was found in the stomach of a baby blue whale that washed up on the shores of Yuigahama in Kamakura City.
Kuroiwa said, "Most of the garbage floating in the ocean is what comes from our daily lives and washes down from land. I hope people will stop producing garbage and recycle as much as possible." Hara added, "Japan's waste plastic has nowhere to go, and various recycling efforts are being made, but it is still not enough. If the capacity of final disposal sites is about to be exceeded, we must urgently develop recycling technology. I think we are in an urgent situation."
When Takizawa asked the audience, "How many of you knew that in 23 to 24 years we will no longer be able to throw away our garbage?", fewer than 10 people raised their hands. It seems that it is important to first know the current situation.
Changing the topic, Takizawa explained the importance of separating garbage, using data on the composition ratio of combustible garbage in Minato Ward. For example, he emphasized that 16.1 % of 28.1 % of paper can be separated as a resource, and that "it is the exact opposite of whether it is reborn as paper again or turned into ash." The same goes for plastics, where 9.0 % of the 16.8 % can be reused. If these 16.1 % and 9 % were to be used as resources, 25 to 30 % of garbage would be eliminated, and if 100 million people were to work on it, 300 million garbage could be reduced to 200 million. "I think it's important for everyone to work together," Takizawa said.
When asked for his opinion on waste separation, Kuroiwa introduced an initiative in Kanagawa Prefecture that uses the "nudge theory." Washable and reusable containers were prepared for meals served near Shonan Bellmare, and were tentatively named "Container A" and "Container B." When the prefecture used this as a quiz-like format to ask users to throw away their trash, more than 90% of them (unconsciously) separated their trash.
*A theory that utilizes human behavioral psychology to encourage desirable behavior without the other person realizing it.
Continuing on from that, Hara mentioned the waste plastic oil production equipment on display and said, "For us, the key point is how to make recycling possible through technology. At this exhibition, we are exhibiting KASHIN INFINITY, which converts waste plastic into oil. It is a device that enables decentralized resource circulation while reducing waste." He spoke about Macnica 's efforts in plastic recycling.
Takizawa went on to emphasize the differences in how plastic waste is handled depending on the region, and the difficulty of sorting it manually at "plastic intermediate processing plants." It seems that in many cases, lunch containers with dirt on them must be incinerated as combustible waste, even if they are plastic that can be reused as a resource. He added, "However, if they are solidified, they can sometimes be used as fire starters, so I think it is important for the government to inform residents in advance and encourage them to be at least a little conscious of sorting when throwing things away."
The program also explains that Japan is the second largest producer of plastic waste in the world after the United States, and that the country is forced to export it overseas. For example, plastic is sometimes sent to Malaysia as a resource, but it is surprisingly contaminated and sometimes sent back. The program also explains the current situation in which garbage leaks out during the process and gets washed away, polluting rivers. It turns out that these are some of the reasons why the garbage problem is not just a problem in Japan, but a global one.
"After all, it's important to get rid of waste in the first place," says Kuroiwa, who says that when he saw a four-panel cartoon by a child that was submitted to a past "SDGs Award," he was reminded of the time before the Showa era. Nowadays, when you go to a supermarket, most products are wrapped in plastic, but in the past, when you bought fish at a fishmonger, they would wrap it in newspaper, and you would have to bring a pot with you when you went to buy tofu. Milk also used to be sold in bottles, but now it comes in cartons.
"The increase in garbage is the result of the single-minded pursuit of convenience. Plastic bottles are still used as a matter of course, but if everyone carried a water bottle like in the old days, we wouldn't need plastic bottles. It's important to think about what to do with the garbage that's generated, but we also need to make an effort to stop the generation of unnecessary garbage," Kuroiwa continued. He also commented, "Distributed processing using machines like Macnica 's KASHIN INFINITY will be one concept for future garbage processing."
Finally, Takizawa concluded the first part by saying, "If garbage is concentrated in one place, it will not be possible to process it all within the country, so dispersal will likely be the key," (Kuroiwa Satoru left the stage at this point due to personal commitments).
Part 2 (Takizawa x Hara)
The second part began with Mr. Takizawa talking about his experience with infectious waste disposal. When COVID-19 was raging around the world, hospitals were required by law to carefully package and dispose of waste.
However, this is not the case with regular household garbage, and the cleaners who collect it, including Takizawa, are flesh and blood. Also, if the garbage is disturbed by birds or cats and the contents are scattered, the risk of infection increases. Masks have also been bought up, so they cannot be worn. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a "life-risking job," and sometimes the people who collected the garbage would leave notes of thanks.
Having experienced such a difficult situation, Takizawa asked Hara, "I believe these issues can be resolved not only through law, but also through technology. Has Macnica developed something that could potentially solve the problems I've experienced?"
"Yes, that's the Melt King drying and volume reduction machine. It's a revolutionary device that uses indirect heating to turn industrial waste and food residue into a smooth powder, reducing the volume by one-fifth to one-fiftieth," says Hara.
If 1 ton (1,000 kg) were to be reduced to one fiftieth of that, it would be just 20 kg. Even infectious waste can be rendered harmless by heat treatment, so it can be disposed of as general waste, and the lighter weight reduces transportation costs and CO2 emissions during transportation. Hara also explained that food waste can be used as fertilizer after secondary fermentation, and that garbage can be thrown in in its original bag form.
Takizawa responded, "As we move towards a super-aging society, I think we'll see an increase in diapers and other waste in facilities for the elderly, but it'll also be a great relief for cleaners. The larger the facility, the more Melt King should be installed."
The conversation then turned to KASHIN INFINITY, with Takizawa asking, "In what kind of facilities will it be particularly useful?" Hara replied, "Its selling point is its compact size - just 5 meters wide, 3 meters high, and 2 meters deep - so it can be placed in a variety of locations. It can be used for a variety of purposes, but the concept is not for processing plants that collect large amounts of garbage, but rather for use at one's own company or business to turn waste plastic into energy on the spot."
For example, a plastic bottle cap will turn into heavy oil in about four hours. It is also envisioned that by installing the device at a hotel chain's business premises, toothbrushes will be turned back into oil equivalent to heavy oil A, which can then be used as fuel to heat bath water. Furthermore, by classifying the components, it is possible to separate oil into kerosene or gasoline, in addition to oil equivalent to heavy oil A. After hearing this explanation, Takizawa was impressed and said, "This is what recycling really means. The prices of heavy oil and petroleum are affected by the global situation, so this is important in society in the future."
"As Governor Kuroiwa said earlier, it is important to first eliminate waste at the entry point. Then, at the exit point, we can use technology to turn waste into resources. I believe that only when we have strategies for both the entry and exit points like this can we achieve the SDGs," Hara continued.
Mr. Takizawa also emphasized the importance of creating a system to resolve two issues - the "urgent problem of final disposal sites" and "converting resources into money or things that we can use ourselves rather than burning them" - and introduced an initiative in Kagoshima Prefecture called the "Osaki Recycling System."
This is a measure to extend the life of the existing landfill site by eliminating the annual maintenance costs of hundreds of millions of yen by deliberately not building an incinerator. The money saved and profits from selling recyclable resources will be used to fund scholarships, and students who receive scholarships will not have to repay interest if they return to Osaki Town within a certain number of years.
"Personally, I think all local governments should be like this. If we are heading towards a super-aging society in the future, it would be fine to use the funds for welfare expenses. Usually, when waste is reduced, the number of employees is also reduced, but in Osaki town, the funds are being used to create jobs. They are changing the way they employ people to work in recycling businesses, rather than trash businesses," said Takizawa.
The conversation was finally coming to an end. "The more we turn trash into value, the more that value will generate new things and create a recycling-oriented economic society, so a change in thinking is important. We would like to provide technology to help with this," said Hara.
Takizawa continued, "There's an American proverb that says that waste is nothing more than a lack of imagination. In other words, everything becomes waste because of a lack of imagination, but if we think about it from the perspective of turning something into a resource, the word waste should disappear. Even if something is trash, there is an appropriate way to dispose of it or burn it. Therefore, I think it is most important to consider human rights and the environment comprehensively as we move forward with the SDGs."
Finally, when asked by Takizawa to give a message, Hara commented, "Thank you for today. I learned that as a company, the Company still has many themes to tackle. With this knowledge in mind, I would like to use my imagination to create new value, based on the idea of not making waste waste. I would like to continue to walk together with Takizawa as partners for many years to come." Takizawa responded, "I would love to do something together."
