JAPAN -- While the Oakland (CA) City Council seeks to levy a litter tax on convenience stores and restaurants, those in Japan are turning to green solutions to address excess waste.

Retailers are examining a number of innovative solutions to reduce waste and meet the requirements of Japan’s Food Recycling Law, which requires stores and restaurants serving food to reduce or recycle 20 percent of their garbage by April 1, 2007.

The Daily Yomiuri reports that convenience stores are facing challenges in reducing the amount of waste generated by expired bento boxed meals and other perishable food and drink items.

At Lawson convenience stores, employees are now using handheld scanners to fix the number of orders at three time intervals throughout the day, trying to anticipate demand and balance concerns with oversupply with those of out-of-stocks.

"Many expired items create more waste, but if we reduce the amount of orders, we might end up out of stock, which would mean we would lose the chance to sell," Lawson employee Fumiko Mimura told the newspaper.

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. has tried a different approach, pulling bento boxes from shelves two hours before the eat-by-date expires, as opposed to its previous practice of pulling items anywhere between two and eight hours before expiration.

"We found that they [bento] can stay fresh longer, and [keeping them on the shelves for longer] is helping reduce waste," Seven-Eleven’s Hidekazu Yamaguchi told the newspaper.

Seven-Eleven also is putting more emphasis on offering sampling for items nearing their eat-by date.

And, for items that do expire, Seven-Eleven is working with an outside company to recycle expired items as pig swill, which sells at a higher price than compost.