Abstract
In 2012, an amount of 12000 ton of sewage sludge from Aichi and other prefectures, along with organic residues from a number of food industries, were composted by an industrial waste treatment company called T. The resulting product was 6500 ton of fertilizer, which was derived from the sludge and then brought to agricultural areas in Tahara City. Neighboring farmers began to raise complaints to the local authorities in Tahara due to the bad odors. The case was investigated from the aspect of regulatory compliance. Although there were no violations found with regard to the treatment of industrial wastes like sewage sludge, there does remain a doubt as to whether this recycling of sewage sludge can be acknowledged as a genuine cyclical-use of resources. This paper reports the factual details of this particular case and discusses further possibilities for appropriate treatment of organic waste in general.
