Learn in the textbookCorporate Governance and Administrative / Environmental Laws
DefinitionThe Waste Management Act (廃棄物処理法) sets out how waste is to be stored, transported and disposed of, requiring proper treatment to protect the living environment and public health.
ExplanationIts formal name is the Act on Waste Management and Public Cleansing. Waste is divided into industrial waste, the legally specified types that arise from business activities, and general waste, which covers everything else, and businesses must treat the industrial waste they generate on their own responsibility (generator responsibility). When a company discards used PCs or servers as waste, it also has to handle them in line with this Act.
AnalogyIt is like a town agreeing in advance on how garbage is put out, carried away and where it ends up, so that nobody dumps it by the roadside.
Memory hookThe 'public cleansing' at the end of its formal name is a holdover from an older law on keeping towns clean.