44 Trillion Yen Treasures of Sleeping Disused Items Selling on Mercari Gamagori, Aichi
A city employee takes a photo to sell on Mercari
Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture, has launched Japan's first initiative to sell disused items brought in as oversized garbage to incineration plants in partnership with Mercari, a major flea market app. A system was also put in place to mediate the reuse of resin between companies, and a partnership was born in which another company could use the resin discarded by a curtain manufacturer. The aim is to reduce the amount of garbage, which is the largest amount among local governments in Aichi Prefecture.
“Can I sell this kotatsu on Mercari?”
A staff member asked a citizen who brought an unnecessary kotatsu as oversized garbage to the Gamagori City Clean Center (incineration plant). After turning on the power and confirming that the temperature actually rises, the staff took pictures from multiple angles and completed the listing on Mercari. Already, 51 products have been put out, and a total of 28 products, including globes and wheelchairs, have been sold worth 59,400 yen.
In April, Gamagori City signed a partnership agreement with Mercari, a major flea market app. The exhibition of disused items brought in as oversized garbage began in May. As a municipality, this is the first initiative in Japan, and since July, it has started exhibiting manholes that are no longer needed, assuming that enthusiasts will purchase them.
The sales will be the income of Gamagori City, but the purpose is not income. The aim is to make citizens aware of reuse and reduce waste. Garbage discharge in Gamagori City is 1,127 grams per person per day. It exceeds the Aichi prefecture average (895 grams) and is the fourth most common among municipalities in the prefecture. Of this, 603 grams is household waste, and Gamagori City aims to reduce this to 500 grams by 2028.
Hiroaki Hatano, head of Gamagori City's Circular City Promotion Office, said, "There is a strong implication that citizens will realize that there are still things they can use, and that they will change their behavior to reduce waste." The waste disposal cost for fiscal 2020 was about 1.1 billion yen, or 13,907 yen per person, 8% higher than the prefecture average (excluding construction and improvement costs). It seems that it decided that it was necessary to change the awareness of citizens in order to reduce processing costs.
Trial and error, such as distributing free "Mercari Eco Box" to temporarily store items that are no longer needed at home, and opening "Mercari Classroom" to teach people who are not good at using smartphones how to use Mercari. continue.
Gamagori City is also working to mediate companies in the city and have them reuse materials that are no longer needed.
Sunrose, a curtain maker, used to throw away about three tons of plastic sheets used to wrap fabrics it purchased each year. A person in charge of the Circular City Promotion Office who visited the factory introduced Sanyo Chemical, which is involved in the recycling business. He took the resin sheets and recycled them into polyethylene pellets. Pellets are used as raw materials for agricultural films and protective/moisture-proof sheets for civil engineering and construction.
Koji Sakakibara, manager of Sunrose's marketing division, said, "I didn't think resin sheets could be reused because they get dirty." In the past, it cost 500,000 yen a year to dispose of the waste, including other types of waste. The company is considering whether it is possible to manufacture curtain hooks from recycled pellets in the future.
Gamagori Mayor Toshiaki Suzuki said, "It's not going to work if you just tell citizens and companies to reduce waste."
"Eliminating the guilt of throwing things away" A shortcut to realizing a recycling-oriented society
According to a Mercari survey in 2021, the value of "products lying idle in Japanese households that have not been used in the past year" is estimated at 44 trillion yen. By partnering with local governments, Mercari can further increase the number of app users. Kosuke Kobayashi from the environmental cleaning division of Gamagori City said, "When I told Mercari that I would sell oversized items that had been disposed of as oversized garbage, some people said they would try it themselves, and I'm seeing a gradual change in the attitudes of citizens. ', he says.
According to a 2019 survey by Mercari, the number one reason for microtransaction users to feel happy or happy when a product sells was that they no longer feel guilty about throwing away usable items (64%). Communicating recycling and reuse methods to citizens and companies seems to be a shortcut to the realization of a recycling-oriented society that Gamagori City is aiming for.
