Rice into low-carbon plastic brings hope to struggling Fukushima town
Last November, Tokyo-based firm Biomass Resin opened a factory in Namie to turn locally-grown rice into pellets. The raw materials are reborn as low-carbon plastic cutlery and takeout containers used in chain restaurants, souvenirs sold at one of Japan's largest international airports, and most recently, in shopping bags at a BMW pop-up showroom in Tokyo.
Jinichi Abe grins as he watches excavators digging earth near his rice fields, knowing they are returning more fields to productivity for the first time, since the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown which covered the area with radiation over a decade ago.
Even better, Abe knows that the rice that he and a cooperative grow later this year will have a steady buyer, and his town of Namie, still struggling to recover from the March 2011 disaster, has a new hope: a venture that turns rice not suitable for consumption due to health worries, into low-carbon plastic used by major firms across Japan.
"I wanted to do my part against plastic waste. Another reason was for the reconstruction of Namie. I wanted to be of some use so I consulted with everyone and decided to work with Biomass," said Abe, 85, a 13th-generation farmer. The farming cooperative he works with had already used 16 hectares of land for the first time last year to cultivate rice crops. This year Abe expects the land the cooperative is clearing now to contribute to the harvest.
"I don't know how many years it will take for Namie from now but I think it will get better," Abe said.
Some 80% of the town's land remains off-limits currently. Parts of Namie lie only 4 km from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which had a nuclear meltdown following the March 11, 2011 tsunami nearly 12 years ago.
Today, less than 2,000 people live in the town compared with 21,000 before the disaster.
Biomass Resin's president, Takemitsu Imazu, said job creation was key for revitalizing the town which once hosted a thriving pottery business and farming industry.
"I feel that by building a factory here, it can play a role in helping solve the regional issues that the town is facing by creating employment and attracting people," Imazu said.
In the factory where he's in charged-of, a toasted rice aroma permeates the production line. Rice is being combined with small plastic beads, heated and kneaded before being extruded into thin rods that are cooled and cut into tiny brown pellets. The pellets, either 50% or 70% rice, are then sent to companies which manufacture plastic goods.
The plastic isn't biodegradable, Imazu said, but using rice cuts the petroleum products involved - and growing more rice in Namie also reduces overall atmospheric CO2. Experts said additional testing has found no rice registering above strict radioactive limits.
Satoshi Konno, a town official, said the revival of the agriculture industry was crucial for Namie given its importance before the disaster. But new industries are also vital.
"Fukushima Hamadori has the Innovation Coast Framework (initiative supporting infrastructure in the region) so I would like to see new industries and companies with new technologies come," he said.
Since 2017, eight companies have come in, including a concrete plant, aquaculture and an EV battery recycler, generating about 200 jobs. Discussions are underway with others and research institutes may bring still more people.
Biomass Resin employs 10 people in Namie and hopes to expand. It currently uses only about 50 tonnes of Namie rice - the rest of the 1,500 tonnes needed is mainly from elsewhere in Fukushima - but it will be buying more next year from Abe and his cooperative, grown on the freshly-cleared fields.
Reuters
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