The Japanese town of Namie, still struggling to recover from the 2011 Fukushima disaster, has a new hope: a venture that turns rice unsellable for consumption due to health worries into low-carbon plastic used by major firms across the country
Spreading down from the forested slopes of the mountains to the ocean side, parts of Namie lie only 4 km from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Company , which provided jobs for many – including Abe’s son and grandson. The plant's chimneys are clearly visible from Ukedo beach, below a primary school gutted by the March 11, 2011 tsunami.
There is one major shopping centre, one clinic, two dentists, one combined primary and junior high school - and a dearth of jobs. In better times, there had been a thriving pottery business, and farming, along the coastal plain. "Namie was hit by four disasters - the quake, the tsunami, the reactor accident and then rumours about radiation danger," said Takemitsu Imazu, president of Biomass Resin Fukushima.
The plastic isn't biodegradable, Imazu said, but using rice cuts the petroleum products involved - and growing more rice in Namie reduces overall atmospheric CO2.
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