1.
GV PAN Mito City and the Hitachi factory (2 shots)
0.08

2.
GV INT Garbage unit
0.13

3.
SV ZOOM IN TO CU Garbage being fed into machinery (3 shots)
0.45

4.
CU ZOOM CUT FROM Garbage container TO machinery
0.56

5.
LV & CU Machinery, pipes and meters (6 shots)
1.10

6.
SV & CU Oil coming from pipe into bucket (2 shots)
1.33



Initials BB/1731 WH/MR/BB/1758



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A Japanese company, Hitachi Manufacturing, is testing a compact garbage disposal unit they have developed, which efficiently recycles ordinary household waste into useable fuels.

The prototype unit -- which occupies only one room -- is being put on trial at the Hitachi factory in Mito City, west of Tokyo.

Using a heat-resolving process in thirteen stages, the unit can break down five tons of garbage in a day. Three basic commodities are separated off -- 50 per cent oil, 30 per cent carbon and 20 per cent gas.

All three commodities can be refined and used for their energy or in the manufacture of other products. During the whole process, very little is wasted -- in stark contrast to energy-hungry conventional disposal techniques.

If the tests on the prototype are successful, the company plans to put a unit of similar size on the Japanese market within two years -- but capable of converting 150 to 300 tons of waste a day.

The development of the Hitachi machine has been sponsored by Japan's new Ministry of International Trade and Industry's Council on Recycling of Waste into Resources. The Ministry claims that 1,300 million tons of waste is thrown away in Japan every year when it could be reused.

Hitachi officials plan to give the unit its first full-scale test in Tokyo where local authorities are spending vast amounts of money incinerating the 17,000 tons of garbage the city produces daily.