Tomoyuki Adachi

Social Studies Department / Keio Chutobu Junior High School / Specialist in Human Geography

Translated by Roberto Carlos Luna

I wonder how long our era of disposable goods will continue. This year marks my sixth year teaching the 3rd-year elective class “An Encouragement of SDGs” to students at Chutobu, and as I discuss concepts like circular economics with my students, I often feel like this era is in fact coming to an end. Based in the notions of using resources as long as possible and reusing resources rather than disposing them, we have worked to partner with companies with advanced SDGs implementation in an effort to promote recycling and upcycling. Yet although we have been aiming to become “The World’s Most Waste-free School”, I have noticed one surprisingly large source of material waste: our school’s lost and found. These items, too, can prove to be valuable resources.

For example, take plastic umbrellas. Although we often buy them out of convenience and for a cheap price, they often end up in landfills due to the difficulty of disassembling their vinyl, plastic, and metal components. The fact that some 80,000,000 umbrellas are thrown away in Japan every year emphasizes the need for a solution to the umbrella waste problem. In our SDGs class, we collected the vinyl sections of umbrellas and cooperated with an upcycle company to recreate the umbrella waste into something based on students’ ideas: notebook covers.

Another example is stationery. In our class, we collected used plastic stationery and had a workshop with a recycling company. We worked to disassemble pens and organize them into their different resin materials to create new stationery. We also participated in a workshop in which we assembled fountain pens. The fountain pen may in fact be the ultimate eco-friendly writing device thanks to its ability to continually replenished with ink.

Next, take the case of water bottles. Since the lids are made of plastic while the main bodies are made of stainless steel, these single materials make them relatively easy to recycle. While we first started collected water bottles at Chutobu, we have expanded to collect bottles from other Keio affiliated schools and Keio University campuses. We have been making and selling new water bottles made with recycled materials with artistic designs by Chutobu students, with a portion of our profits being donated to organizations working to help the environment.

Finally, our new challenge is school uniforms. After collecting old uniforms from graduated students, or those that no longer fit, we have broken them down into their basic fibers and created new uniforms which include recycled fibers. Students will begin using these new uniforms from the 2028 school year.

Looking forward, I wonder what we will be able to work to recycle next. Our goal is to create a waste-free school. How interesting it would be if all Keio campuses were able to achieve zero waste.