• Waste management in Japan
• Circular economy in Japan
• Waste management in Asia
• Disaster waste management

D.Waste-Net (Disaster Waste Treatment Support Network [external link]), whose members include our institute, the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), is a framework to help disaster-stricken municipalities treat a massive amount of disaster waste properly and rapidly. In addition, D.Waste-Net has another set of expected roles and functions in helping the municipalities in non-disaster times. This article introduces D.Waste-Net’s human resource development assistance for municipal disaster waste management (DWM), one of the important pillars of such roles and functions during non-disaster times.

Japan's national DWM Guidelines emphasize the importance of strengthening municipalities’ preparedness for DWM in non-disaster times by developing not only their DWM plans but also human resources who can provide DWM responses properly according to each circumstance. In general, training is one effective means of human resource development, but in the DWM field, its method has not yet been firmly established. In view of this situation, NIES has been collaborating with municipalities to develop effective program and method for DWM training through discussion and “learning by doing” (e.g., development of a participatory DWM training method in collaboration with Hyogo Prefecture).

For example, we designed and implemented a training program for municipal staff from all over Japan to visit the areas hit by the Kumamoto Earthquakes of April 2016. Its two sessions of January and July 2017 in Kumamoto offered a total of 33 participants an opportunity to understand with their own eyes and ears the status of DW treatment and municipal DWM responses. In addition, we have published on our website “DWM Training Guidebook” series (in Japanese) that can serve as an easy-to-understand reference for the municipalities and private companies that plan to develop human resources in the DWM field.

We will continue our efforts in helping municipal human resource development during non-disaster times so that more municipalities will voluntarily conduct this kind of activities nationwide and make use of their expertise and know-how further to strengthen DWM response capacity of the entire municipalities.