Hello there!
I’m Koichiro. On Jan 28 and 29, Ishio-san (D3) and I (B3) went to Teshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea. I would like to give a brief report of this trip.
This summer Georgia Institute of Technology is having a summer program in Japan, so Professor Brian Woodall and his wife Joyce came to Japan to take a look at some places where his students will be visiting. Ishio-san and I visited Teshima with Brian-sensei and Joyce-san to study about industrial wastes.
Teshima is a place where one of the most biggest illegal waste dumping in the world was done, which amount is more than 916,000 tons. The removal started from 2000 and is still continuing.
Illegal dumping was started in the 1970s until 1990 when Hyogo prefectural police exposed the law-breaking action. The citizens of Teshima fought for more than 20 years to stop the illegal dumping but until the last few years, they were treated terribly and nothing seemed to change. Many of them gave up their hope several times, but they didn’t stop fighting back to get back their beautiful island.
But finally in the year 2000, the citizens of Teshima won the right to stop the illegal dumping and to remove the waste from the island.
The history of Teshima was very shocking to us. This case became a big news and gave many people the opportunity to think over about wastes. In fact, some laws were improved and these made Japan’s waste problems better.
However, there are still many waste dumping problems to solve in the world. Last summer, SDGs were declared and sustainability is becoming a more important factor. This trip to Teshima made us think more about these problems and it was a very meaningful experience.
Lastly, we would like to give a special thanks to Ishii-san, from Teshima-Jumin-Kaigi, for giving us a very detailed tour.
Koichiro
P.S I had some time to look around Okayama. Here are some pictures of them.
