Residents of Tokyo¡¯s 23 wards may soon be required to pay to get their waste collected.

As concerns rise over landfills reaching capacity, authorities hope that charging for garbage collection will prompt residents to work on reducing the amount of waste they put out.

The management of household waste is handled by local municipalities and not the prefectural government, meaning different regions have different rules. In most of Tokyo¡¯s cities and towns outside of the 23 wards, household waste collection is already charged.

In the city of Musashino in western Tokyo, residents must use trash bags designated by the municipality to dispose of their waste. Costs range from ?100 ($0.60) to ?800 per 10 bags, depending on the size.

Requiring residents to purchase designated trash bags or municipal-designated trash bag stickers are common ways in which local governments charge residents for garbage disposal.

¡°I would rather say many people are surprised that the wards (in Tokyo) have not introduced it yet,¡± Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said last Friday. ¡°In the Tama areas (in western Tokyo), where fees have already been implemented, the policy has produced significant results in reducing waste generation.¡±

Paid trash collection is quite common in Japan, with around 67% of municipalities nationwide adopting the system as of 2022, according to the most recent numbers by the Environment Ministry.

Behind the Tokyo government¡¯s push is a concern that landfills are reaching full capacity. The 23 wards are allocated two disposal sites in Koto Ward for waste that cannot be recycled or incinerated.

Yumenoshima, an artificial island also in Koto Ward, used to be an operational landfill, but it reached full capacity in 1966. The remaining landfills are quickly running out of space and are estimated to reach full capacity in about 50 years.

Waste from households and businesses in Tokyo bound for landfills declined until 2009 thanks to greater efforts toward recycling, but it has stagnated since then, according to the Tokyo government.

Most of the waste that goes into the landfills come from the 23 wards. The majority of municipalities in the Tama region have managed to eliminate landfill-bound waste since 2018 as a result of charging for garbage collection and encouraging recycling.