Abstract
In the last two years of the 20 th century, the citizens of Nagoya reduced waste quantities by 23% and buried waste quantities by 47%. The abandonment of the landfill site plan proved itself to be a turning point that lead to the Emergency Announcement for Garbage Reduction and the recycling of container and packaging materials. Literally with its back to the wall, the City of Nagoya quickly proposed a succession of new rules. The imperfect Container and Packaging Recycling Law caused great confusion due to the fact that the people of Nagoya strongly felt we had no choice but to succeed. “We gave serious consideration to complaints and the thinking behind them because we considered them to be our best source of information.” Over many serious disagreements the citizens and the city administration gradually came to understand each other.
Based on these results, we have started to implement the following steps to create a sustainable society: 1. Form a consensus between citizens and city administration, 2. Form mutual consensus between citizens, 3. Form a consensus between citizens and businesses.
