OSAKA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- One year has passed since a recycling plant, jointly administered by two cities in the western Japanese region of Kansai, started operations. Now it is being developed as a leisure park for children and a tourist attraction.
Some 8,000 local people have already visited the recycling plant and they have helped raise awareness and support among the public to protect the environment by recycling valuable metals and plastic waste.
Ahead of "Gominohi" (Refuse Day) to be observed on May 3 in Japan, the plant is now being spruced up by setting up amusement facilities.
The overall objective is to promote the concept of recycling waste materials and protect the earth's ecological balance.
The fun-filled learning facility called 3R Center was designed to enhance environmental awareness, promoting a society committed to "recycling", "reducing" and "reusing".
The center is part of a joint development project by the cities of Toyonaka in Osaka Prefecture and neighboring Itami in Hyogo Prefecture.
The three-storey building constructed a year ago in a field near an embankment along the border between the two cities, covers a total floor area of 11,000 square meters and has been operated by a special district authority to recycle plastic bottles, containers and packaging, glass bottles, tins, paper and textile as well as wood chips.
These waste materials are collected daily by garbage trucks as "recyclable waste" or "combustible refuse" from local residents. After the wastes arrive at a platform at the recycling hub, they are automatically conveyed to various machines such as vibrating screens, particle size sorters and metal separators to be sorted and all these activities are monitored from a central station.
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