黒川温泉一帯地域コンポストプロジェクト

黒川温泉一帯地域コンポストプロジェクト

Kurokawa Onsen Area Community Compost Project

https://youtu.be/6o7HtjE180w

黒川温泉観光旅館協同組合では、2020年9月に「黒川温泉一帯地域コンポストプロジェクト」を開始しました。
本プロジェクトは、旅館から出る食品残渣や温泉街の落ち葉を活用して完熟堆肥を作り、その堆肥で農家に野菜を育ててもらい、できた野菜を旅館で仕入れ調理してお客様へ提供する一連の取り組みです。
この取り組みにより、旅館から出る生ごみの焼却量を減らすことでCO2排出量の削減を試みます。また環境への取り組みだけでなく、良質な堆肥から作られる豊かな土と南小国町の清らかな源流水の恵みを活かして、顔の見える地元農家の協力のもと安心安全で質の高い野菜を育てます。
今後は旅館30軒、年間の食品残渣概算102t分の堆肥化によるCO2の排出量削減と、できた循環型野菜のブランド形成、および安定的な生産流通システムの構築で旅館や温泉地の経済性を高めていきます。中長期的には、南小国町とも連携を図りながら、温泉地だけでなく町内全体へコンポストの循環の輪を広げていきます。

Kurokawa Onsen Tourism Ryokan Cooperative Association has launched the "Kurokawa Onsen Area Regional Compost Project" in September 2020.
This project is an initiative to use food residues from inns and fallen leaves in the hot spring resort area to make fully ripe compost. That compost is used by farmers to grow vegetables. Farmers sells that vegetables to inns which is served to guests.
Through this project, we are trying to reduce CO2 emissions by reducing the amount of food waste incinerated at the ryokan. In addition to our environmental efforts, we are particular about the quality of the vegetables produced and the quality of the compost. Compost quality is ensured by the Ryokan association professionals. Farmers are taking advantage of the rich soil which has advantage of high quality compost and pure source water of Minami-Oguni Town. With these advantages local farmers will grow safe and delicious vegetables. By branding, selling, and offering the resulting cyclical vegetables, we will increase the economic efficiency of inns and hot spring resorts.
In the medium to long term, in cooperation with the town of Minami-Oguni, we will reduce CO2 emissions by composting an estimated 102 tons of food residue per year at 30 inns. We will build a system for stable production and distribution of circulating brand vegetables. We will expand the circle of compost circulation not only to the hot spring resort but also to the entire town.

リニアエコノミーの時代、観光宿泊業は多くのお客様を旅館に招き、食べきれないほどの食事を提供してその残渣を廃棄するといった大量生産・大量消費の産業構造でした。黒川温泉においては、現在各旅館の意識や行動は変わってきておりますが、まだ道半ばの状況にあります。
また、阿蘇奥深くの里山にある黒川温泉は、貴重な地域資源（地熱、水・川、森林、草原、田畑等）が豊富に存在する地域でもあります。こうした地域の資源を消費するのではなく最適な規模で循環させる仕組みを作り、環境負荷を軽減しながら経済を成り立たせることが、この温泉地を次の世代に健全に引き継ぐためにも重要であると考えています。
その考えのもとにある一つの取り組みが「黒川温泉一帯地域コンポストプロジェクト」です。“地域資源の循環”という視点で地域を俯瞰した際、旅館の食品残渣や大量の落ち葉を「堆肥化」して循環させる仕組みを導き出しました。
本プロジェクトでは、現在出てしまっている食品残渣を活用することで環境負荷を減らす仕組みをつくること。並行して、旅館の食品残渣の量そのものを減らしていくことにも積極的に取り組んでいきます。
2020年〜2021年は、組合独自の堆肥場で、小規模の堆肥づくりと実証実験を行います。2022年からは町内事業者や行政と相談、連携しながら、堆肥づくり、野菜の生産、流通などのシステム設計・構築の計画を進めていきます。

During the era of the linear economy, the tourism accommodation industry was an industrial structure of mass production and mass consumption, inviting many guests to inns, serving more food than they could eat, and disposing of the residue. In Kurokawa Onsen, the awareness and behavior of each ryokan is changing, but there is still a way to go.
Kurokawa Onsen, located in a satoyama deep in the Aso Mountains, is also an area with an abundance of valuable local resources (geothermal heat, water, rivers, forests, grasslands, fields, etc.). We believe that it is important to create a system to circulate these local resources on an optimal scale instead of consuming them, and to make the economy work while reducing the burden on the environment, in order to pass this hot spring resort on to the next generation in a healthy manner.
One of the initiatives based on this idea is the "Kurokawa Onsen Area Regional Composting Project. When we took a bird's eye view of the region from the perspective of "circulation of local resources," we came up with a system to "compost" and circulate food residues and large amounts of fallen leaves from inns.
The goal of this project is to create a mechanism to reduce the environmental burden by utilizing the food residue that is currently being generated. In parallel, we will actively work to reduce the amount of food residue itself in inns.
From 2020 to 2021, we will conduct small-scale compost making and demonstration experiments at the association's own composting site, and from 2022, we will move forward with plans to design and build a system for compost making, vegetable production, and distribution, in consultation and cooperation with businesses in town and the government.

https://www.kurokawaonsen.or.jp/tanoshimu/detail.php?kiji=261