[Feature: Toward a Circular Economy and Society] Hiroya Tanaka: On the Launch of the "Digital-Driven Ultra-Resource Circulation Participatory Society Co-creation Hub"

The "Digital-Driven Ultra-Resource Circulation Participatory Society Co-creation Hub" is an industry-academia-government-citizen collaboration project that began at the end of 2021. It was launched after a research proposal submitted through the co-creation of Keio University as the lead institution, Kamakura City as the managing municipality, 24 participating companies (managing company: KAYAC Inc.), and other participating universities was selected for the Regional Co-creation Field/Nurturing Type project of the "Program on Open Innovation Platform for University-Associated Venture Ecosystem (COI-NEXT)" by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

The "Mixed-Recycle Large-Scale 3D Printer," developed through research and development in the predecessor JST Center of Innovation Program (COI, 2013–2021), was utilized to manufacture 98 podiums for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. At that time, we were able to material-recycle (upcycle) approximately 24.5 tons of used detergent containers collected from all over the country. Afterward, I felt that this technology should be further refined into something that takes root in the "local community."

The podium project revealed several challenges alongside its achievements. One was that because it was a nationwide initiative, the transport distances from collection points to factories and warehouses were long and complex, resulting in losses from the perspective of CO2 emissions. In recent years, in the field of resource circulation, there has been a growing shift in perspective from "simply circulating" to "designing what kind of 'better circulation' to create." For example, Nancy Bocken, a researcher in sustainable business model innovation, has published a framework for "(1) closing, (2) slowing, and (3) narrowing resource loops."* For a "better circulation" that also contributes to decarbonization, it is necessary not only to "close the loop" but also to work on shortening transport distances as much as possible to circulate resources within the region, and to reincarnate them into long-life items that are used for longer periods.

Collaboration with local governments is indispensable for resource circulation initiatives set in the local community. In Japan, waste and resource collection are the responsibility of local governments and have been operated under rules tailored to regional characteristics and populations. The "Act on Promotion of Resource Circulation for Plastics" came into effect in April 2022, and to promote it, high-level collaboration between industry and local governments is necessary. University knowledge is increasing in importance as a foundation for connecting the two.

Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, the managing municipality for this project, is a "medium-sized city" with a population of approximately 170,000. It is known as the birthplace of Japan's National Trust movement and as an area with high environmental awareness. It has reduced waste by 60% over the past 30 years, and because it currently implements detailed separate collection for more than 20 categories, its recycling rate is 52.7% (the national average is around 20%). This is the highest figure in the country among municipalities with populations between 100,000 and 500,000. However, some municipalities, such as Kamikatsu Town in Tokushima Prefecture and Osaki Town in Kagoshima Prefecture, already have recycling rates exceeding 80%. Kamakura City is also facing new challenges, such as the decision to shut down aging waste incineration facilities, and is in a situation where a new approach is needed to transition to a structure that "reduces waste and increases resources."

In the "Comprehensive Partnership Agreement on the Realization of a Creative Future City" concluded between the Keio Research Institute at SFC and Kamakura City in 2020, our directions aligned in aiming to improve citizens' ability to solve regional issues using data and technology. The COI-NEXT Keio Kamakura Hub, where I serve as project manager, proposes the thorough utilization of digital technology aimed at intra-regional resource circulation. We plan to sequentially introduce city monitoring technology using AI cameras attached to garbage trucks by Professor Jin Nakazawa of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and sensing technology that operates independently without batteries by Professor Hitoshi Mitsugi of the same faculty, to "visualize" the flow of resources in the city through data and disclose the information. Another point we want to emphasize is using digitalization (DX) as a means to lead citizen participation. In Kamakura City, the digital regional currency "Machi-no-Coin" (developed by KAYAC Inc.; the CEO is Daisuke Yanasawa, a 1996 graduate of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies) was introduced in January 2021. Public activities such as town planning are maintained through the exchange of value different from conventional legal tender. By collecting coins in one part of the city and using them in another, various community activities in the region become organically connected.

The starting point for this project was the idea of "Resource Circulation DX," which links such digital information to increase transparency, fosters a sense of participation in resource circulation, derives academic insights from accumulated data, and leads to further optimization of measures and operations [Figure 1].

Building on this, we are further considering the development of new indicators to show "intra-regional circulation." The "recycling rate" previously published by local governments represents the ratio of collected resources out of the total waste generated, measuring the so-called "outflow" part. However, in aiming for a "circular society" in recent years, there has been active movement toward measuring the ratio of collected resources used again in the manufacturing process—the "return to the start of the loop (inflow)" part—and indexing "circularity" from both sides (e.g., CTI (Circular Transition Index) by the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development)). While these movements are currently led by product manufacturers, we are using them as a reference to devise a municipal version of circularity indicators and are beginning to consider whether the degree of regional circulation (local-disposal-local-consumption rate) can be used as a new yardstick. "Visualization" through digital technology and setting new indicators as common goals will serve as the development of a platform where various players from industry, academia, citizens, and government can naturally co-create.

The "Program on Open Innovation Platform for University-Associated Venture Ecosystem (COI-NEXT)" carries the slogan "People change, universities change, society changes." In the conventional linear economy era, there was a division of roles where companies "manufactured and sold goods," citizens "purchased, used, and disposed of goods," and local governments "processed waste." However, in the coming circular society, companies will bear the responsibility not only for selling goods but also for "collecting what they sold," and local governments will bear the role not only of processing waste but also of "connecting collected resources to new regional wealth." Citizens, who will play the role of connecting these, will also need a new citizen consciousness different from that of conventional "consumers."

However, this seems to be starting to sprout naturally from within the citizens themselves, rather than out of necessity. Of the 24.5 tons of recycled material used to make the Olympic podiums, 13 tons were posted by citizens into collection boxes installed at schools, supermarkets, and drugstores. To give a clear outline to this new citizen consciousness and behavior, we have decided to use the term "Circulators" (Junkan-sha). We hope to clarify the substance of the change in consciousness and behavior that differs from conventional "consumers" and lead the way toward its further expansion, penetration, and establishment.

The future city where "Circulators" live should be one where facilities and systems different from the present are introduced. Based on long discussions with the 24 companies participating in the project, particularly Taisei Corporation, a draft of a "future city image" was born and released as a four-minute video movie [Figure 2].

What is depicted in this video is the image of a city that actively increases value by "turning waste into resources, and further, resources into city assets," promoting cascade utilization where resources from various industries are connected and repurposed one after another, including plastics and waste generated from nature that have not been effectively utilized until now. We aim to transform relatively short-lived products (flow products) into long-lived products (stock-type artifacts) as much as possible. To realize the vision depicted in the video, we opened a satellite lab in a location five minutes on foot from JR Kamakura Station. Kamakura Mayor Takashi Matsuo participated in the kick-off symposium, and an active exchange of opinions took place, including President Itoh [Figure 3]. Since then, we have also been conducting special classes and experiments on plastic decomposition by microorganisms at elementary schools in Kamakura City with Professor Kenji Miyamoto of the Faculty of Science and Technology, who gave the keynote speech there.

This project is conducting social experiments with Kamakura City as the first stage, but the ultimate goal is to deploy a new social model to various municipalities in Japan and abroad. In 2001, the "Kassel Project" was conducted to demonstrate whether popularizing biodegradable plastics in a city and using them would contribute to the formation of a circular society. The city of Kassel in Germany, which was the stage for this, is also a city with a population of 200,000, similar to Kamakura. The movement that started there later spread throughout the world and was used as a reference for model projects in Japan. Our satellite lab has already been visited for inspections by the city of Umeå in Sweden and the city of Venice in Italy, which are already collaborating with Kamakura City through the "International Urban and Regional Cooperation Program," as well as Bhutan and the city of Yogyakarta in Indonesia through JICA's "International Exchange Program." Through discussions there, expanding the network of new resource circulation cities while understanding differences in population scale and culture has also become our new goal.

The "Mixed-Recycle Large-Scale 3D Printer" is now beginning to be used to create city benches, playground equipment, planters, and more using plastics collected from the region and coffee grounds. Additionally, "resource collection boxes" have been redesigned as green "Shigen Posts" (Resource Posts), manufactured with our 3D printer, and installed at Kamakura City Hall and other locations [Figure 4]. This project has only just begun, but we hope to move forward with various stakeholders and researchers to lead a new future society 10 or 20 years from now.