Visit to Kawanishi City's "Zero Food Waste Area Creation Model Project"

Associate Professor of Faculty of Business Administration Otemae University is working with multiple partners, including H2O Retailing Co., Ltd. (Head office: Kita-ku, Osaka City, President: Naoya Araki), to reduce food waste in the region through the "Zero Food Waste Area Project 2023, Realized Together with the Region." This project was selected for the Ministry of the Environment's "FY2023 Model Project for Creating Zero Food Waste Areas," and is being carried out in the area centered on Kisera Kawanishi, which was developed with the aim of creating a next-generation complex city in Kawanishi City, Hyogo Prefecture.
On January 11th, we welcomed members of the Ministry of the Environment's Environmental Regeneration and Resource Recycling Bureau, the project contractor, and Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting, the secretariat, to our on-site inspection team.
The first place we visited was a citizen's field created next to the platform at Kinunobebashi Station with the cooperation of Nose Electric Railway Co., Ltd. The compost used there was made from food waste from households that participated in the "Food Loss Zero Challenge Days" held in Kawanishi City. The compost was also used in the flower beds in the park at Kisera Kawanishi Plaza. We inspected the flower beds and spoke with the director of Kisera Kawanishi Plaza, before moving to the Hankyu Oasis Kisera Kawanishi store. In the back yard, we were given an explanation of the large composters made by Yanmar E-Star, which composts food waste generated by the store, and then we had a discussion around a table with the people in charge of each business, Chikyu Labo Co., Ltd. and Yanmar E-Star Co., Ltd.
The H2O Retailing Co., Ltd. Group explained that the "Zero Food Waste Area Project 2023, Realized Together with the Community" is positioned as part of the "Tsugu." social experiment project, which aims to promote greater resource circulation in the region. Associate Professor Sakakura of our university commented that "it is important to increase the number of comparable regional cases in order to organize basic information for expansion to other regions."
During this visit, the participants were able to taste the radishes grown in the field on the spot, and were able to get a real feel for the reality of resource circulation, from the composting efforts to how the soil produced there is used in the local area. Our university will continue to support this project and contribute to the development of the local area.

(Source: School Public Relations)