The 1st ANA Future Promise Forum "WHY? - No Trash, Thinking with Kamikatsu Town" was held!

The ANA Group has established a new program in FY2023 with the aim of providing an opportunity for each and every one of us to take ESG as our own personal matter and take action toward achieving the medium- to long-term environmental goals set by the ANA Group.

We invite outside lecturers to share their new knowledge, which is difficult to obtain in the course of daily business, and to think together about what we can do and what the ANA Group can do.

For the first session, Ms. Momona Otsuka (BIG EYE COMPANY, Inc.), who is involved in the operation of the Kamikatsu Town Zero-Waste Center in Tokushima Prefecture, spoke at the event.

She is 26 years old and originally from Kanagawa Prefecture.

Originally interested in fashion design, she studied abroad in England during her senior year of high school. While studying fashion, she questioned a society in which "throwing away" clothes was the norm, and at the same time, she was shocked to find that she had become a perpetrator of social problems through the fashion she admired.

From then on, she went on to university, not to make clothes, but to learn how to make clothes sustainable.

During her studies, she came across the town of Kamikatsu, Tokushima Prefecture, and strongly empathized with the concept of zero-waste and made the big decision to move to Kamikatsu Town by herself upon graduation.

Kamikatsu Town is the first town in Japan to declare a "Zero Waste" policy in 2003.

There are no garbage trucks in town, and all town residents bring their garbage to the garbage station and sort it into 45 different types for recycling.

In addition to the cooperation of the local government, the town has been able to involve its residents through a system of sorting support, "Chiritsumo points" given to those who bring in items that can be easily converted into resources, and the clear indication of collection sites and each disposal costs.

We learned that the first step is to be aware of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) as well as Renewable and Responsible, and to set up a system to think about how we can make our lives last longer by each of us taking responsibility for our consumption behavior.

After the lecture, participants experienced the sorting of trash, including in-flight meal sets, amenities, and magazines, in the Kamikatsu style.

The disposal cost of the same plastic differs 100 times depending on if it has or does not have a plastic mark on it, and the sorting destination differs depending on whether the plastic is soiled or not.

This was a completely different experience from the usual "garbage disposal" and made us realize how amazing the town of Kamikatsu is and at the same time, it gave us an opportunity to think about what we can do and what the ANA Group can do.

ANA Group employees who participated in the event commented,

• "I realized that garbage is not garbage, but a living resource that we should take good care of."
• "I realized that I am one of the persons who are responsible for social problems, and I have been thinking that it is someone else's problem."
• "When I actually experienced the Kamikatsu-style sorting method, I realized the importance of sorting and at the same time felt the difficulty of it. Through the changes in Kamikatsu Town, which used to be overflowing with garbage, I realized that we can do it if we try."

The current initiatives in Kamikatsu Town are a better choice, not the best," said Ms. Otsuka.

For a better future, the ANA Group will continue to work together as one to aim even higher and promote the ANA Future Promise initiative.