RECOTECH Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Ei Nozaki; "RECOTECH") has begun a waste management DX and resource circulation initiative using pool, its data infrastructure for resource circulation, at Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza. The initiative makes waste discharge within the facility visible at the tenant level, capturing discharge volumes and sorting status by item as data so that tenants can take an active role in sorting.
The initiative makes waste discharge within the facility visible at the tenant level, capturing discharge volumes and sorting status by item as data so that tenants can take an active role in sorting. RECOTECH aims to provide environmental reports for each tenant and implement a new sorting scheme to raise the recycling rate.
Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza is one of Japan's largest resort shopping malls, marking its 30th anniversary since opening in 1995. Located in the nature-rich resort town of Karuizawa and home to a diverse mix of tenants, advancing resource circulation at this facility carries real significance for building a sustainable operating model for commercial facilities.
Through this initiative, RECOTECH will support the evolution of commercial facilities from "places where waste is generated" into "supply hubs for recycled resources."
Initiative overview
Facility: Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza
Location: Karuizawa-machi, Kitasaku-gun, Nagano Prefecture
Scale: approx. 240 stores, approx. 260,000 sqm site area
Operator: Seibu Real Estate Property Management Co., Ltd.
Opened: 1995 (celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025)
Initiative start: rolling out from April 2026
Scope: tenant-level waste weighing, visualization of sorting status, environmental reporting, and verification of a new sorting scheme
System used: RECOTECH's pool (data infrastructure for resource circulation)
Why Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza
Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza is one of Japan's largest resort shopping malls, located in the nature-rich resort town of Karuizawa. It combines sightseeing, shopping, dining, and stay experiences in one facility, making it a large-scale consumption hub that draws large numbers of visitors and tenants alike.
The significance of this initiative goes beyond simple improvements to waste management.
First, there's the regional angle. In an area where the natural environment and tourism assets underpin the facility's very value, reducing environmental impact is directly tied to the sustainability of the facility's operations.
Second, there's the difficulty of engaging tenants. At commercial facilities, environmental measures led solely by the facility operator only go so far. It's essential to design a system that lets tenants, who discharge waste every day, take part in sorting and reducing discharge.
Third, there's its value as a model that can be replicated elsewhere. If a large commercial facility can bring tenant-level weighing management, visualization of sorting status, environmental reporting, and the exploration of new recycling schemes together into a single system, that becomes a model that can be applied to outlet malls, station buildings, mixed-use commercial complexes, tourist facilities, hotels, theme parks, and more, across the country.
Launching this initiative at the milestone of the facility's 30th anniversary is an attempt to redefine what a commercial facility is, for the next 30 years: not a "place of consumption" but a "place where resources circulate."
Key features of this initiative
1. Making each tenant's discharge volume visible
In this initiative, each tenant is issued an IC card, linking weighing data at the time of waste discharge to that tenant's information. This makes it possible to grasp not just the facility's total waste volume, but the actual discharge patterns by tenant and by item. By turning a discharge structure that was previously hard to see into data, it becomes possible to design concrete measures for improving sorting and raising recycling rates.
2. Sharing sorting status with tenants
Posting rules alone isn't enough to make sorting stick. Tenants need to understand "why sorting matters" and be able to take part without disrupting their daily operations.
In this initiative, each tenant's discharge volume and sorting status is visualized as data, creating a state where the facility operator and tenants can work on sorting based on the same information. By letting tenants themselves see their own discharge patterns, this encourages sorting rules to take hold and drives more proactive participation in sorting across the whole facility.
3. Turning commercial-facility-specific waste into resources
Commercial facilities generate distinctive waste by business type, beyond ordinary combustible and non-combustible waste — clothing covers, hangers, food waste, and used cooking oil, to name a few. With proper sorting and a designed recycling destination, these items hold potential for resource recovery.
This initiative grasps the current sorting status, treatment methods, and discharge volumes, and verifies the feasibility of implementing new sorting and collection schemes to raise the recycling rate.
4. Dynamically optimizing recycling destinations
What matters in resource circulation is not settling on a recycling destination once and leaving it fixed. Because recycling technology and demand for recycled materials shift over time, facilities need a design that dynamically selects among multiple treatment operators and recycling destinations, continually updating the optimal circulation route.
Based on waste discharge data and material information, RECOTECH examines the circulation potential of each item and supports the facility in building the optimal resource circulation scheme.
5. Providing a dashboard for each tenant
As sustainability disclosure requirements for companies (such as ISSB/SSBJ-compliant disclosure) and environmental considerations grow in importance, tenants themselves increasingly need to track their own waste discharge volumes and recycling status.
This initiative visualizes each tenant's discharge volume, sorting status, and recycling results, and delivers them as an environmental report. This gives not only the facility operator but tenant companies themselves a foundation for grasping and communicating their environmental performance with concrete data.
What RECOTECH supports
RECOTECH doesn't simply provide a weighing system. On the ground at commercial facilities managing waste, a number of operational issues need to be sorted out before data can even be captured: discharge locations, sorting rules, tenant communication, collection routing, and coordinating recycling destinations, among others.
Using its resource circulation data infrastructure pool, RECOTECH provides integrated support across the following:
- Assessing the current state of waste storage areas and discharge routing
- Designing tenant-level weighing management operations
- Visualizing discharge volume and sorting status by item
- Designing sorting rules and tenant-facing operations
- Building a system for sharing sorting data with tenants
- Identifying target items for raising the recycling rate
- Exploring recycling destinations and circulation schemes
- Building the data foundation for tenant-level environmental reporting
This allows commercial facilities to position waste management not as a mere administrative task, but as a management strategy that raises both environmental and facility value.
About pool, the data infrastructure for resource circulation
pool is RECOTECH's data infrastructure for resource circulation. It connects information related to the discharge, weighing, collection, recycling, and procurement of waste and resources through data, making visible a resource circulation process that has historically been fragmented.
Waste generators can accurately grasp their discharge volumes and treatment status, and use that data for better sorting, reduced discharge, and environmental reporting. Collectors and recyclers can manage collection results and material information as data, leading to more efficient, more transparent resource circulation.
pool works together with collectors to drive the transformation of cities, commercial facilities, municipalities, and other large-scale sites where large volumes of waste are generated into supply hubs for recycled resources.
RECOTECH's key implementation track record
RECOTECH has been building a track record implementing pool across municipalities, commercial facilities, and government sectors.
- Waste management DX across 1,200 facilities in Yokohama City (in full operation since April 2026)
- Tenant-level weighing management at Tamagawa Takashimaya S.C. (Toshin Development)
As one of Japan's largest resort shopping malls, Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza stands as a leading example of resource circulation DX at a commercial facility that is integrated with a sightseeing and stay experience.
Frequently asked questions
Q. When did the pool deployment at Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza begin?
A. Tenant-level weighing data capture began rolling out in April 2026. Visualization of sorting status and verification of new sorting schemes will expand in stages.
Q. How is tenant-level weighing carried out?
A. Each tenant is issued an IC card, and weighing data is linked to that tenant's information at the time of waste discharge. This makes it possible to grasp discharge volume and sorting status by tenant and by item.
Q. How is waste specific to commercial facilities handled?
A. For items distinctive to different business types — clothing covers, hangers, food waste, used cooking oil, and the like — the current sorting status, treatment methods, and discharge volumes are assessed, and the feasibility of implementing new sorting and collection schemes to raise the recycling rate is verified.
Q. What other deployments has RECOTECH done?
A. RECOTECH has a track record implementing across municipalities, commercial facilities, and government sectors, including 1,200 facilities in Yokohama City, Tamagawa Takashimaya S.C. (Toshin Development), and ministerial certification from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of the Environment (a first outside the industrial sector).
Q. What's the potential for expanding into resort facilities and tourist destinations?
A. The initiative at Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza stands as a leading example of resource circulation DX at a commercial facility integrated with a sightseeing and stay experience. Building on this model, RECOTECH is looking toward expansion into outlet malls, station buildings, mixed-use commercial complexes, tourist facilities, hotels, theme parks, and more.
Inquiries about waste management and resource circulation at commercial and mixed-use facilities
RECOTECH accepts inquiries about waste management DX and resource circulation scheme design for commercial facilities, mixed-use facilities, office buildings, hotels, tourist facilities, and municipal facilities.
From sorting out current challenges in waste management, to tenant-level weighing management, revisiting sorting rules, surveying items to raise the recycling rate, and building the data foundation for environmental reporting, RECOTECH proposes solutions tailored to each facility's situation.
Contact: https://recotech.co.jp/contact/
Whether it's a question about resource circulation or our services, feel free to reach out.
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