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GLOBAL WATCH MISSION REPORT

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): innovating novel recovery and recyclingtechnologies in Japan

SEPTEMBER 2005

The DTI drives our ambition of‘prosperity for all’ by working tocreate the best environment forbusiness success in the UK. We help people and companiesbecome more productive bypromoting enterprise, innovation and creativity.

We champion UK business at homeand abroad. We invest heavily inworld-class science and technology.We protect the rights of workingpeople and consumers. And we stand up for fair and open markets in the UK, Europe and the world.

Global Watch MissionsDTI Global Watch Missions enable small groups ofUK experts to visit leading overseas technologyorganisations to learn vital lessons about innovationand its implementation of benefit to entire industriesand individual organisations.

By stimulating debate and informing industrialthinking and action, missions offer uniqueopportunities for fast-tracking technology transfer,sharing deployment know-how, explaining newindustry infrastructures and policies, and developingrelationships and collaborations. Around 30 missionstake place annually, with the coordinatingorganisation receiving guidance and financial supportfrom the DTI Global Watch Missions team.

DisclaimerThis report represents the findings of a missionorganised by Mini-Waste Faraday Partnership withthe support of DTI. Views expressed reflect aconsensus reached by the members of the missionteam and do not necessarily reflect those of theorganisations to which the mission members belong,Mini-Waste Faraday Partnership or DTI.

Although every effort has been made to ensure theaccuracy and objective viewpoint of this report, andinformation is provided in good faith, no liability canbe accepted for its accuracy or for any use to which itmight be put. Comments attributed to organisationsvisited during this mission were those expressed bypersonnel interviewed and should not be taken asthose of the organisation as a whole.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that theinformation provided in this report is accurate and upto date, DTI accepts no responsibility whatsoever inrelation to this information. DTI shall not be liable forany loss of profits or contracts or any direct, indirect,special or consequential loss or damages whether incontract, tort or otherwise, arising out of or inconnection with your use of this information. Thisdisclaimer shall apply to the maximum extentpermissible by law.

Cover picture: © Pera

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Waste electrical andelectronic equipment

(WEEE): innovating novel recovery and

recycling technologies in Japan

REPORT OF A DTI GLOBAL WATCH MISSION SEPTEMBER 2005

industrial waste minimisation

Mini-Waste

CONTENTS

Executive summary 3

Key findings and 10recommendations

1 Introduction 12

2 Aims and objectives 14

3 Mission participants 16

4 Legislation 195 Logistics and collection 246 Progress and current position 267 Data recording and reporting 288 Processing 339 Product disassembly 3810 Materials recovery and markets 4011 Future trends 47

12 Mission findings 48

13 Conclusions 51

APPENDICES 52

A Acknowledgments 52B Mission team details 53C Mission key questions 58D Visit reports 60E Education, education, education! 98F List of exhibits 102G Glossary 105

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WASTE ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT (WEEE): INNOVATING NOVEL RECOVERY AND RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES IN JAPAN

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background

According to Japanese governmentsources1, as much as 450 million tonnes (t)of waste is generated every year, of which50 million t is municipal solid waste(MSW), and the number of final disposalsites is rapidly dwindling. A commonlyquoted figure from various sources is thatgeneral waste landfill sites will be fullwithin 10 years and that industrial landfillwill be full by 2007/8.

There is also a recognised problem ofincreasing environmental damage beingcaused through waste disposal such asincreasing global warming, decreasing airquality and long-term environmental effectsof hazardous substances.

In addition forecasted resource constraintsare beginning to impact on manufacturingcosts in Japan, not least due to the closeproximity of materials-hungry neighbourssuch as China and Korea.

Consequently the Japanese governmentinstigated a formal programme of sustainabledevelopment based on the 3Rs (reduce,reuse, recycle) in the 1990s2 and a frameworkof recycling laws was established during2000 to 2003, ranging from packaging, homeappliances, food, construction and end-of-life(EoL) vehicles.

The mission

The substance of this report is based on theeffect and application of the Japanese Home

Appliance Recycling Law (HARL, 2001) with44 million domestic households disposing of18 million appliances each year.

The mission team were representatives ofthe Mini-Waste Faraday Partnership, which isone of 24 Faraday Partnerships funded by UK government and the research councils. The Partnership is developing improvedcontacts between industry and academiawithin the UK in the field of resourceproductivity and waste minimisation in thefive key sectors of food, construction, miningand minerals, metals and electronics.

The team represented a cross-section of theindustry both in size (large UK nationals andsmall to medium enterprises – SMEs) andsectors (waste collection and logistics,eco-design, plastics recovery, WEEE andmobile phone recycling).

Six of the mission team are part of a smallcore team forming a network of industrialmembers set up, under the auspices of theDTI Global Watch Service and the newResources Efficiency Knowledge TransferNetwork, to promote post-consumer plasticrecovery and reuse. A secondary objective ofthe mission was to consolidate the strategyand objectives of this group.

The UK delegation visited leading Japanesecompanies (Mitsubishi Electric – Hyper Cycle,Toshiba, Hitachi, Panasonic – METEC, Sharp –Kansai Recycling, Sony – Green Cycle andTokyo Eco Recycle) as well as meetinggovernment officials at the Ministry ofEconomy, Trade and Industry (METI).

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1 Towards a 3R-Orientated, Sustainable Society: Legislation and Trends (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan)

2 Law for Promotion of Utilisation of Recycled Resources

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Several mission participants also had ahalf-day visit to the International Plastic Fair2005 at Makuhari Messe. The missionmembers delivered a seminar on Applicationof the WEEE directive in the UK and Europeat the British Embassy in Tokyo to anaudience of over 80 delegates.

Many of the companies visited are marketleaders in the electronics sector and haveadvanced manufacturing/de-manufacturingprocesses. For example, Sharp has inproduction one of the first electronic devicesfeaturing active disassembly using smartmaterials (ADSM) for shape-memory polymercomponents. The main thrust of the missionwas to visit as many recycling facilities aspossible to look at technology and understandany major differences in philosophy.

As previously mentioned the main driver forrecycling is legislative as enshrined in

HARL. This law was formulated in the late‘90s and had a wide consultative processwithin the industry. Hence when the lawwas finally enacted in 2001 most of themajor manufacturers had already instigatedthe policy within their organisations, and inat least one instance visited by the missionhad started to build recycling facilities,although these would be better describedas disassembly factories.

The major original equipmentmanufacturers (OEMs) split into two groups– imaginatively called Group A and Group B– to build recycling capabilities. Group Aconsists of Panasonic, Toshiba andMatsushita; Group B of Sony, Sharp, Sanyo,Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Fujitsu. Thesegroups set up joint ventures (JVs) witheach other, with one partner beingresponsible for – and running – the facilityas the major shareholder and the other

New environmental responsibilities of companies

Basic Environmental Law

Basic Law for Establishing the Recycling-Based SocietyClarifying what a recycling-based society should be like

Enforced June 2000

Waste Management and Cleansing Law (amended)

Heavier responsibilities on discharging companiesEnforced October 2000

Law for Promotion of Effective Utilisation of Resources

Requiring reduction of waste generationEnforced April 2001

Law for Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances

Enforced April 2001

Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection andRecycling of Containers and Packaging

Enforced April 2000

Food Recycling Law Reduction and recycling

of food wastesEnforced May 2001

Green Purchasing LawPromotion of

green purchasingEnforced April 2001

Construction MaterialsRecycling Law

Requiring sorting of dismantledconstruction materials

Enforced April 2002

Exhibit S.1 Japanese environmental laws

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partners being involved as lessershareholders. They also invite the minorproducers to join their consortia dependingon the location of the particular facility.

Regulation and control

Overall responsibility for legislation in theWEEE arena lies with METI. Broadlyspeaking, Japanese society and its legislatureare very ‘environmentally friendly’. Theycommissioned a study and then enacted a‘Basic law for a Recycling-Based Society’(June 2000) which acted as an umbrella for anumber of related laws.

Exhibit S.1 details their relationship but theones most relevant to the mission were theLaw for Promotion of Effective Utilisation ofResources (LPEUR) and HARL, both enactedin 2001. Of these, LPEUR is the more broadlybased and similar to what the EU proposesfor the WEEE directive. However, HARL is themost concise and universally applied as itcurrently covers Japan’s four major homeappliances: air conditioning units, fridges,washing machines and televisions (TVs) –defined as cathode ray tubes (CRTs), notliquid crystal displays (LCDs) which were onlyjust coming onto the market at that time.

The cost of financing HARL is borne by theconsumer, directly and transparently, througha system of unified, government-set charges(Exhibit S.2).

In the case of replacement equipment theshop is required to take back the replacedappliance. The retailer will arrange for the

appliance to be collected and delivered to alocal central stockyard (190 of them aroundthe country) and from here they areseparated by type of appliance and make,then sent to the local Group A or Group Brecycling centre depending on the make.

The key strength of the system is that therecycling centres get a very clean segregatedwaste stream and have very detailedinformation regarding the appliancecomposition and manufacturing methodbecause they have the assembly blueprintsfrom the original build (in many cases theycan scan in the model ID or serial number tohave a precise design specification). There willbe a major difficulty in applying a similarsystem in the UK where this kind ofinformation may not be available.

In the case of redundant or scrappedappliances the system is similar except in a fewminor details. If consumers have details ofwhere the appliance was originally purchasedthey can require the store to take the applianceback. If the store is not known, no longertrading or too far away, they can contact adedicated collection unit to come and pick theitem up. For example, in the case of TVs thisservice is provided by the Post Office.

As mentioned, the system is financed byconsumers, who buy a multipart docket ormanifest from the Post Office. The consumerkeeps the top copy and sticks the remainingdocket package on the appliance; when it iscollected another copy is filed; at thestockyard another copy is removed; likewiseat the recycling centre; and finally the lastcopy is sent to a central data collectionauthority. At any point in the proceeding anyof the participants can check where theappliance is. This proves to be a very conciseand simple audit trail and there is evidencethat consumers do check with the datarecording body that their particular appliancehas been disposed of responsibly. A flowsheet is shown in Exhibit S.3.

Appliance type Charge

Refrigerator ¥4,600 (~£23.00)

Air Conditioner (A/C) ¥3,500 (~£17.50)

Television (CRT) ¥2,700 (~£13.50)

Washing Machine (W/M) ¥2,400 (~£12.00)

Exhibit S.2 Charges for recycling of home appliancesunder the HARL system

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Flow of manifest

Keeping ofmanifest(originalsheet)

The retailerissues a copyof manifest Issues a manifest

Exhibit S.3 Flow of recycling manifest

COPY

COPY

The consumer can make sure that thediscarded home appliance has been

handed over to the manufacturer

If a retailer hands over a used home appliance directly to the manufacturer, the retailer issues amanifest to the manufacurer

Keeping ofmanifest

(copy)

Manifest is sentManifest is sent

Manifest is sent

Appliance type Recycling target Actual recycling rate

2001 2002 2003 2004

Air conditioner 60% 78% 78% 81% 82%

Television 55% 73% 75% 78% 81%

Refrigerator 50% 59% 61% 63% 64%

Washing machine 50% 56% 60% 65% 68%

Total number of units recycled 8,538 10,147 10,460 11,214

Exhibit S.4 HARL recycling targets and actual rates, 2001-2004

Appliance type Component percentage by weight

Plastics Aluminium Copper Steel Glass Other

Air conditioner 11 7 17 55 0 10

Television 23 2 3 10 57 5

Refrigerator 40 3 4 50 <1 3

Washing machine 36 3 4 53 <1 4

Exhibit S.5 Typical percentage weight of material components of home appliances

Co

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mer

Ret

aile

r

Was

teco

llect

or/

tran

spo

rter

Man

ufa

ctu

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Surprisingly, METI – which has overallresponsibility – insists that fly-tipping to avoid paying the disposal charge is virtuallyunheard of.

Within the legislation the government has setstrict targets for the amount of materialrecovered for each group of appliances(Exhibit S.4) and all recycling centres have toreport their figures regularly.

These targets have a tight definition of whatcounts as ‘recovered’, with the fraction of anyappliance being ‘reused’ (due torefurbishment, social reuse, sold on to thirdparties) as being disallowed. ‘Recycling’ isdefined as the total weight of waste sold forrecycling or reuse divided by the total input.

The targets were set following consultationwith industry, obviously based on industryknowledge of the average material weightsof components in each type of appliance(Exhibit S.5).

There is no requirement for the recyclingcentre to achieve better figures but allroutinely do, prompting speculation that thegovernment may increase the targets in thefuture in light of significant year-on-yearimprovements from the recycling centres.When METI was directly asked if this waslikely, it replied that it was very pleased withthe results and, as self regulation was clearlystill delivering improvements, it didn’t wantto punish recyclers by imposing strictertargets in the near future. Again this could beseen as a crucial difference between Japanand the UK.

Due to having a well-defined collectionsystem and only looking at four groups ofappliances, segregation and cleanliness ofoperation was impressive. A standard stillagecage appears to be used to deliver appliancesto site and obviously makes transportationand storage ‘modular’ and compact. Cruciallyit delivers appliances to recycling centres in

‘good condition’ (for example the mission sawvery few examples of TVs with brokenscreens or fridges with the gas pipeworkbroken or leaking).

Industrial investment

The regulations were broadly created inconsultation with industry and widelydisseminated with a guaranteedimplementation date. Consequently the majorplayers such as the large electronicmanufacturers had plenty of time to putmeasures in place. Indeed some facilitieswere already constructed and in operationbefore the laws were enacted. The system ofpayment by the consumer guaranteed arevenue stream for the recycling centres.Finally, by close cooperation the majorsuppliers set up JV companies therebylimiting their exposure to financial risk andreducing their capital expenditure.

Vertical integration with the parentorganisation also made recycling easier – ie cheaper and quicker – and gave a readymarket for recovered materials. For example,virtually all the plastic recycled at KansaiRecycling Systems Corp (KRSC) is reused bySharp – some 150 tonnes per year (t/y) fromHARL appliances, 15 t/y from photocopiersand 10 t/y from personal computers (PCs).

This closed-loop system is seen as a ‘virtuouscycle’ by Japanese companies and featuresprominently in their annual ‘corporateresponsibility reports’ of which they are alljustifiably proud. That said, the industry hasstill invested heavily in the 46 or so recyclingcentres throughout the country, as can beseen by the capital investment numbersmentioned in individual visit reports later inthis document.

Essentially, the Group A and Group Bconsortia operate similarly designed plantsusing similar basic technologies. Theappliances are treated on dedicated lines with

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combined treatment only happening on theresidual elements at the end of lines orwhere similar components had clearly beenidentified, such as common plastic casings orprinted circuit boards (PCBs).

The amount of manual handling anddisassembly was surprisingly high butobviously very efficient. Some typicalexamples quoted were nine minutes for a TV,12 minutes for a fridge and 24 minutes for anair conditioner.

The use of sophisticated data logging systems(for what are essentially waste handling sites)was in evidence with many able to providereal-time information such as units per hourand weight of each material recovered.

The residual technologies to separate thevarious materials were generally tried andtrusted – such as shredding, magnetic andeddy-current separation, plastic air anddensity flotation – but were applied to veryclean, concentrated feedstock, hencedelivered impressive separation results. There was evidence of some innovativetechnology in the area of plastic separationbut this is available and understood in Europe.

Disassembly was mainly manual asmentioned with the only ‘robot’ technologyseen being a hot-wire separator to dividefunnel glass from tube glass on some of theTV lines. Obviously mechanically assistedmanual handling was common with thefavoured equipment being ‘intelligent’ sensor-controlled motorised conveyors and vacuumlift devices.

Gas recovery equipment from fridges and airconditioners was the common vacuumextraction system but rigorously applied usingloss-in-weight detection to make the processsemiautomatic. The companies were at greatpains to point out this technology at eachfacility as they are clearly very sensitive toany climate change gas issue (this is possibly

part of the Japanese culture – an island nationbeing significantly at risk from sea-levelchange, and the Kyoto Protocol being anational emblem).

Conversely, incineration of any finallyunrecoverable waste stream was generallyseen as acceptable and ‘good practice’.Energy-from-waste (EfW) plants were cited asa good means of disposing of unrecoverablemixed plastics, and mixed plastic/metalfractions ‘recycled’ to non-ferrous smelterswas generally acceptable.

Due to the almost non-existence of CRTmanufacture in Japan – now that LCD TVs arethe dominant equipment manufactured –disposal of leaded glass from TVs is starting toprove difficult, with most being considered forexport to China and some starting to be usedas a silica slagging agent in lead smelters orother pyrometallurgical processes.

One of the advantages of only treatingappliances of known composition was thatmany fractions were being recycled directlyback to the parent companies for 100% reuse,giving a completely closed-loop recycling routefor certain constituents like plastics. Also theuse of JV companies with no intellectualproperty right (IPR) concerns allowed ‘designfor disassembly’ to be explored. Already thenumber of separate parts in appliances wasfalling allowing easier recycling. Somecompanies were putting brand-new appliancesthrough the recycling centres to determinehow they could be ‘designed for disassembly’,using time-and-motion type studies todetermine choke points in the process. As yetthere was little evidence of ‘activedisassembly’ components being used toreduce the manual dismantling operation butclearly some companies such as Sharp haddevelopment programmes in place.

None of the processes observed to recycleappliances was ‘revolutionary’ (bearing in mindwe were only seeing a snapshot of

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well-established showcase sites) and couldeasily be applied in the UK. The key differenceis that there is very close vertical integrationbetween the legislators, consumers,manufacturers, recyclers and the supply chainand logistics. With only a few appliances beinglegislated for in Japan this is clearly easierthan the European WEEE directive philosophy.

Conclusions

Japanese companies and stakeholderscovered by and involved in implementingHARL are developing advanced knowledgeof how to run ‘recycling systems’ – thelegal system, infrastructure, plants andlogistics: the HARL system has beenrunning since 2001 and many of therecycling plants since 1999. This has beendone through a strategic approach thatinvolved government (METI), investors andindustry. This knowledge and the learningcurves developed on how to run ‘recyclingsystems’ will enable the Japanese to:

• Set up plants in other countries for their own companies and/or sell turnkey solutions

• Establish ‘recycling systems’ for otherelectronic products based on the learningfrom HARL

• Develop international standards based onJapanese experience

Most of the focus of the missionpresentations was on responses to HARL butit is clear that LPEUR has an important role instimulating recycling and eco-design in otherelectrical and electronics product categories,eg computers, mobile phones, small electricalitems and photocopiers. In addition it wasreinforced that eco-design – and particularly‘design for disassembly’ – is beingimplemented by a number of the companiesvisited (see also the eco-design report3).

3 The ‘state of the art’ in eco-design in the Japanese electronics sector, final report, 1 November 2002, published for DTI by the Centre for Sustainable Design

(CfSD) at Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College

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The mission team found many examples of‘best practice’, some of which – but not all(due to cultural and economic differences) –are applicable to the UK. These are briefly setout below.

Centre of excellence

• Complete a study of the ‘state of the art’in electronics recycling in the UK to mapagainst emerging opportunities

• Develop some form of strategiccooperation between UK and Japanfocused on the transfer of recycling andeco-design knowledge and technologies

• Develop a UK network of electronicsrecycling technology companies

• Consider the educational element of anysuch centre of excellence as a forum forteaching future generations

Investing in industry

• Develop a UK demonstration recyclingplant based on Japanese knowledge andexperience

• Develop an Anglo-Japanese researchproject to classify the recycling plantsseeking to explore inward investmentfrom Japan

Legislation

• Consider carefully the differencebetween LPEUR and HARL oncompanies as a model forimplementation of the WEEE directive

KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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• The government should consider settingup a national WEEE recycling R&D facilityor ‘centre of excellence’ (similar toMETEC) to encourage innovative R&D.

• DTI funding should be strategically focusedand, in this arena, made available to ‘kickstart’ integrated demonstrator facilities.National demonstrator funding is vital and,where appropriate, covering 100% offeasibility costs would be key to this sector.

• The current policy of longer-term fundingprogrammes should be encouraged andstructured to persist over a decade ifrequired. The current governmentTechnology Programme ‘Towards ZeroEmissions’ call should be extended toemphasise this area.

• Government support should not stop withR&D but should continue down throughproduct development and field trials tomarket, with a suitable emphasis on ‘newproduct’ manufacturing development. Againthe ‘Sustainable Products’ call in theTechnology Programme is to be encouraged.

• DTI should bring in simple regulations inthe key sectors as soon as possible, witha longer-term view to amending andextending these measures as experienceis gained. An agreed and publishedschedule of reviews would be helpful forfuture industry planning. This would bringstability to the ‘recycling’ market andencourage longer-term investment.

• The government should be encouraged to‘brand’ recycling technologies as a meansof reducing energy consumption, towardsmeeting Kyoto global warming targets.They should also be seen as a method ofsecuring a long-term supply based onrecovered materials.

• Education is seen as a key area both toenlighten the younger generation aboutfundamental recycling and the oldergeneration towards the use of recoveredmaterials as sustainable products. Thisshould be funded and based in a centre ofexcellence similar to Japan.

Overall policy recommendations for the UK

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1 INTRODUCTION

Japan has a population of 127 million living ona landmass of 378,000 km2 whereas the UKhas a population of 60 million on a landmassof 295,000 km2. Population density in Japanis further exacerbated by available land beingmainly concentrated in coastal areas.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is £2,844 billionwith a growth of 1.1% giving a per capitawealth of £22,500 (equivalent figures for theUK are £935 billion, 1.9% and £15,500respectively). Unemployment is 4.4% and theaverage wage is £42,000 for men and £20,000for women. With comparison figures in the UKof 4.7% and £24,000 it can be seen that withnear zero interest rates in Japan the disposableincome is higher than in the UK.

In terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissionsJapan is ranked fourth in the world, onlysurpassed by the USA, China and Russia.However, being a nation particularlyvulnerable to sea level change and having theKyoto Protocol to their name, the Japanesehave a heightened awareness of theimplications of inaction. Many times duringmission visits the subject of doing things toreduce global warming came up, not only inthe context of the driver for material reuse toreduce emissions but also in alteringmanufacturing facility management (egMatsushita Eco Technology Centre – METEC– had a policy of reduced air conditioning inits office environment as well as its de-manufacturing facility).

Japan has the world's second largesteconomy; however, the massive growth seenduring the 1980s peaked in the early 1990sand has been replaced by periods of

recession interspersed with slow growth.Recently there has been evidence of another growth spurt but it is still seen as very fragile,and with Japanese exposure to globalmarkets the recovery is patchy (eg during ourvisit Sony announced worldwide jobreductions of 10,000 with analysts predictinglarger cuts to come4).

The Japanese government continues to takesteps to stimulate the economy throughmassive spending programmes, includingheavy investment in R&D. The total scienceand technology (S&T) budget for 2003 is¥3.59 trillion (£19.4 billion), an increase of1.2% on 2002, indicating a continuedcommitment to this sector.

Exhibit 1.1 Japan in silhouette

4 Financial Times – East Asia Issue, Week 39

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Private sector R&D investment is alsomassive, and increasing, accounting for 78%of total national spend, including a significantamount on basic research. The top 10Japanese companies invest more in R&Dthan the whole of the UK (public and privatesector). Much of this is invested outsideJapan, with around 160 Japanese companieshaving R&D or design centres in the UK(46% of Japanese investment in the EU), andover 250 Japanese companies manufacturingin the UK.

Paradoxically the large number of SMEs seenin the UK is not so evident in Japan as thisrole in the economy seems to be serviced byfocused divisions within the larger companies.

Recycling is addressed by the majormanufacturers supporting JV enterpriseswhere one of them, dependent on location,holds a controlling share but treats redundantequipment arising from the other partners aswell as its own.

The Japanese economy is heavily dependenton raw material imports, having few naturalresources of its own. Increasingly resource-hungry neighbours such as China are alsohaving a supply and demand effect. Recentincreasing oil and metal commodity priceshave been particularly significant as a driver toassist WEEE recycling. Japan’s electronicssector is a major consumer of plastics, whichare heavily dependent on oil prices.

Meanwhile, contrary to the trend in desktopcomputing where precious metals content isdropping, the component-rich new electronicdevices such as personal digital assistants(PDAs) and mobile telephones are using anincreasing amount.

Another key market is TV technology, withthere being very few CRT manufacturers inJapan now as production moves to plasma andLCD screens. Moves to this new technologyare generating large numbers of CRTs beingrecycled but limiting the closed-loopphilosophy as recovered materials such as leadglass are not being recycled to new CRTs.

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High-level aims

The high-level aims are to identify:

• The mechanisms put in place by theJapanese government to achieve itstargets for electronic recycling

• The approach taken by industry to matchthis aspiration

• Integration of academia with industry to transfer R&D expertise into industrial processes

• Multidisciplinary collaboration to bringabout step changes in technology

• Training capabilities and method of implementation for the overall recycling targets

• Integration of novel technologies withtraditional recycling technology both inindustry and academia

• Complementary strengths of the Japaneseand UK manufacturing base to identifypotential new alliances

Japan represents 23% of total EU imports ofelectronic equipment, with a trade deficit of€14 million. The information gathered fromthis mission will be exploited in several ways.

First, comparisons will be made with theapproach adopted within Japan to introducenew technologies, specifically in the field ofplastics and metals recovery, and moregenerally in recycling technologies. Examplesof best practice will be translated to potentialadoption within the UK context to act as theEU clearing house.

Secondly, particular technologies will beinvestigated to identify the strengths withinthe UK and those in Japan to improvecollaboration to develop improved

manufacturing principles. For example theadvantages of active disassembly are not wellunderstood in the UK and the Japaneseperspective would be important.

Finally, actual manufacturing capability willbe assessed to determine if improvedcooperation will result in advantages forboth markets.

Mini-Waste Faraday is already operating toidentify R&D needs for industry alreadyfamiliar with this technology, and henceimprove productivity within those companies.In addition it is assisting companies that havenot already looked at exploiting thistechnology by introducing them to worldexperts in the field. By translating theexperience and expertise in Japan, thisprocess can only be improved and thereforeboth the rate of advance of the technologyand the rate of uptake is likely to increase.

Specific objectives

Following release of the WEEE directive inEurope, Japanese manufacturers are keen tosee recycling sites established in Europe toaddress the producer responsibilities obligation.In Japan there is a national collection systemfor the four major appliances with two industrialconsortia (Group A and Group B) established totreat them. The two groups operate 41 sitesacross the four major islands.

This solution is similar to the NationalClearing House system being considered inthe UK. However, areas of particularweakness were identified within the EUeconomy around the collection andsegregation of these wastes.

2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

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Another significant gap is the area of plasticsrecycling and recovery. This technology gap isseen to influence the shredding andsubsequent separation technologies, thesebeing a particular strength in Japan.

The areas of interdisciplinary research havenot previously been investigated, andtherefore no conclusions can be drawn on thecurrent state of development.

Several specific areas are thus of majorinterest to the mission team:

• Best practice for collection and segregationof WEEE

• Perceived needs for improved separationtechniques, including depollutionprocesses

• Advanced shredding and mechanicalseparation

• Performing of novel leaching andelectrochemical reactions to recovermetals

• Improvement of metal revalorisationefficiencies

• Performing of novel processes to recoverplastics

• Level of plastic revalorisation efficiencies (if any)

• Recycling capability (particularly from small-scale collection sites to large processingunits)

• Uptake of technology by the uncontrolledsector of electronic goods, comparing thiswith the ‘big’ four proscribed by HARL

• Tools available to audit the logistics of thecollection system and recovery routes

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Participants from the UK

The participants in this mission wererepresentatives of the key areas of UKexpertise in recycling technology:

Arnold Black BSc, FIChemE, CE Deputy Director and Technology TranslatorMini-Waste Faraday Partnership

Martin Charter MBA, DipM Visiting Professor in Sustainable Product DesignCentre for Sustainable Design University College for the Creative Arts

Martin Goosey BSc, PhDChief Scientist and Technology FellowRohm and Haas Electronic Materials Group

Peter Murphy BSc, PhDManaging DirectorActive Recycling Ltd

Phil Conran General Manager, Recycling DevelopmentBiffa Waste Services Ltd

Stuart RandallTechnical DirectorDARP Environmental Ltd

Keith Freegard MIChemE, MBADirectorAxion Recycling Ltd

David Scott BSc, PhDInternational Technology PromoterDTI Global Watch Service

Brief biographies and contact details for theUK participants may be found in Appendix B.

Participants from Japan

Visits were organised to meetrepresentatives of different components ofthe Japanese recycling community:

METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)

Eiji YokoseDeputy DirectorInformation and Communication ElectronicsDivision

Toshiro SuzukiDeputy DirectorInformation and Communication ElectronicsDivision

Kyouhei SuwaDeputy DirectorOffice for Environmental Affairs and Recycling

Nobukuni YamaokaDeputy DirectorOffice for Environmental Affairs and Recycling

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation – Hyper Cycle Systems

Takashi HishiPresident

Kazuyuki Iimura Manager, Home Appliance Recycling Business Development Group

Katsumi Fujisaki Manager, Recycling Business Development Group

3 MISSION PARTICIPANTS

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Toshiba Corporate ManufacturingEngineering Centre

Takehisa Seino PhDGroup ManagerTechnology Planning and CoordinationDepartmentCorporate Manufacturing Engineering Centre

Yutaka KomuraSenior ManagerCoordination DepartmentCorporate Manufacturing Engineering Centre

Yoshihisa HiratsukaChief SpecialistQuality ExpertCorporate Environment Management Division

Hideo SampeiChief SpecialistCustomer Satisfaction CentreCustomer Electronics Recycle PromotionOffice

Hitoshi MisakiChief SpecialistCorporate Environment Management Division

Hitachi – Production Engineering ResearchLaboratory (PERL)

Fumikazu Itoh Dr EngGeneral Manager

Toshijiro Ohashi Dr EngChief Researcher

Masahide OkamotoSenior Researcher Packaging Technology Solutions Department

Mitsuhiro EnomotoManagerManufacturing System 2nd Department

Matsushita Eco Technology Centre Co Ltd(METEC)

Nobutaka TsutsumiPresident

Ko FukudaDirectorRecycling Business Promotion Office

Tatenobu AraiManagerEnvironmental Protection Visual Products and Display Devices BusinessGroupPanasonic AVC Networks Company

Hirotoshi TakeuchiCouncillorEnvironmental Auditing OfficeCorporate Environmental Affairs Division

Tokuhiro HirakiTeam LeaderPlanning TeamRecycling Business Promotion Office

Yutaka HorinouchiDirectorGeneral Manager

Tokyo Eco Recycle Co Ltd

Dr Kenji BabaPresident and CEO

Motto UnoGeneral ManagerDepartment of Environmental Business andTechnology

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Sharp – Kansai Recycling SystemsCorporation (KRSC)

Koji YoshinoPresident, Kansai Recycling Plant

Shinichiro NakatsukaEnvironmental Planning DepartmentEnvironmental Protection Group

Yohei KawaguchiEnvironmental Technology Development DeptEnvironmental Protection Group

Kuni YonedaGeneral ManagerEnvironmental Planning DepartmentEnvironmental Protection Group

Minoru TaniguchiDeputy General ManagerEnvironmental Protection Group

Yoshitake SumidaDepartment General ManagerEnvironmental Technology Group

Yoshinori TatsumiChief Recycling AdvisorEnvironmental Protection Group

Sony Corporation Home Electronics Network Company

Nobuhiro HoriGeneral ManagerSony Recycle-Business Administration

Takeshi TokitaBusiness Promotion SectionSony Recycle-Business Administration

Green Cycle Corporation

Toshimi SaitoPresident and Representative Director

Takeshi TokitaBusiness Promotion Section. Sony

Nobuhiro HoriGeneral Manager

Visit reports relating to the aboveorganisations are in Appendix D.

Introduction

Sustainable waste management has been ahigh priority for the Japanese government forthe last 20 years with their enormousmanufacturing base and limited naturaldisposal options. Existing landfill space is dueto run out in 2008 and the government hasbeen following a planned strategy since theearly ‘90s under the basic 3Rs – reduce,reuse, recycle.

WEEE legislation was clearly the key focus ofthe mission visit but WEEE is just part of acoordinated range of legislation formulated bygovernment in close cooperation withindustry. With an annual 450 million t ofwaste arising from industrial production andconsumption, the country has been seekingto reduce dependency on both naturalresources and end disposal, and seessustainable environmental development as an

essential part of economic progress. This mindset seems to be carried through toJapanese industry which, with its culturalcommitment to R&D, appears to view thechallenge as an opportunity to improvemanufacturing and design processes.

The Japanese government has therefore builtan environmental strategy around the 3Rs –reduction of waste generation, reuse of parts,and recycling of used products as rawmaterials – with the aim of reducingdependence on natural resources andmitigating society’s environmental impact.

This strategy is underpinned by theFundamental Law for Establishing a SoundMaterial-Cycle Society5 that was put into forcein January 2001 and establishes the basicprinciples under which other environmentallegislation should operate. This imposes theobligations of different sectors and the

19


4 LEGISLATION

5 www.env.go.jp/en/lar/wastelaw/SMCSlaw.pdf

Fundamental Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society Jan 2001

Exhibit 4.1 Japanese environmental legislation

Waste Management LawAmended Dec 2003

Law for Promotion of Effective Utilisation of Resources

Apr 2001

Containers andPackaging Law

Apr 2000

Home ApplianceRecycling Law

Apr 2001

Food RecyclingLaw

May 2001

ConstructionMaterial

Recycling LawMay 2002

End-of-LifeVehicles

Recycling LawJan 2005

20


measures to be taken by national governmentand comes under the responsibilities of METI.Under this come the two key laws that thengovern the application of detailed regulation‘on the ground’. The Waste Management Lawbasically deals with disposal whilst the Lawfor Promotion of Effective Utilisation ofResources (LPEUR) deals with the 3Rsthrough product-related law.

This sequence of waste and recycling law isalso then supported by a Green PurchasingLaw, creating legislative circularity for theproduction process and a complementaryrange of strategic goals.

Additional supporting waste-related legislationhas also been applied such as the SoilContamination Countermeasures Law, the

Life cycle of product Legislative system Roles of parties

Exhibit 4.2 Legislative circularity in Japanese waste management

ProductionLaw for Promotion ofEffective Utilisation of

Resources

Businesses• 3R oriented design• Reuse, promoting recycling• Labelling materials

Consumption use

Collection/recycling

Waste

Green Purchasing Law

National government,national organisationsand local authorities• Taking the lead in

purchasing environmentallyfriendly products

Law for Promotion ofEffective Utilisation of

Resources

Containers andPackaging Recycling Law

Home ApplianceRecycling Law

Food Recycling Law

Construction MaterialRecycling Law

End-of-Life VehiclesRecycling Law

Waste Management Law

Consumers• Appropriately paying• Properly disposing

Businesses• Self collection

Businesses/municipalities• Properly disposing of waste

Animal Excrement Management Law foragricultural waste and the Law for PromotingManagement of Release of ChemicalSubstances. Thus there is a full range oflegislation applied across both the municipaland industrial/commercial waste streams.

The key driving legislation for the HomeAppliance Recycling Law (HARL) is LPEUR.This was applied in April 2001 and providesfor 3R measures to be taken by business inthe production stage – ProducerResponsibility. This includes design, labellingfor separate collection and the developmentof an end-of-life (EoL) take-back system.

It applies responsibilities to each party in thesupply and consumption trail:

Businesses• Rationalising the use of raw materials with

the aim of minimising • Using recyclable materials and

reusable parts• Promoting their use at EoL

Consumers• Using products for as long as possible• Using products with high recycled content• Cooperating in separate collection

National and local government • Taking financial measures• Promoting green procurement• Promoting S&T development

Ten designated industry areas and 69 productitems were identified to be addressed byLPEUR, covering around 50% of municipaland industrial wastes (Exhibit 4.3).

This all-encompassing law therefore requiresthat even those products not directly coveredby specific producer responsibility are underpressure and scrutiny to be encouragedtowards improved environmentalperformance. It has also led to thedevelopment of additional take-back schemes

for household PCs and portable batteries.

For some years, consumers have had theability to return EoL computers through anational take-back scheme where thecomputer could be packaged, taken to a localPost Office and returned to the manufacturerat consumers’ expense. In October 2003,manufacturers voluntarily started to include arecycling mark on computers entitlingconsumers to return them free of charge atEoL but with an additional recycling feeincorporated in the sale of the product.

For compact rechargeable batteries, a nationalreturns system has been set up atmanufacturers’ cost with collection points inshops and a national recycling centre.

Home Appliance Recycling Law (HARL)

The main purpose of the mission was toinvestigate HARL and the facilities being usedfor the recycling process.

This law is an excellent example of theJapanese approach to environmentalsustainability in applying the following process:

• It appears to have been developed jointly –and in a coordinated and collaborativespirit – by industry and the relevantJapanese ministries

• It set down clear responsibilities, a clear timetable and clear environmental objectives

• It limited application to gain what wasconsidered to be the optimum achievable benefit

• It gave industry a risk-free framework inwhich to invest

HARL was passed in 1998 giving theproducers – manufacturers and importers – of four domestic appliance types theresponsibility of providing a national take-backscheme and achieve recycling targets. Air conditioners, washing machines,

21


22


Industry Requirement Sector

Resource saving industry Reduction in generation of by-products Pulp and paper

Organic and inorganic chemical manufacture

Steel/iron making and rolling

Primary copper making/refining

Car/motorbike manufacture

Resource reutilisation industry Required to use recyclable resources Paper making

and reusable parts Glass container manufacture

Construction

Rigid PVC pipe manufacture

Copier manufacture

Specified by-products Required to promote the reuse of Electricity industry

by-products as recyclable resource Construction industry

Purpose Requirement Products

Resource saving products Ensure rational use of raw materials, Cars

prolong product life and reduce Electrical home appliances

generation of new products Personal computers

Pinball machines

Metal furniture

Gas and oil appliances

Resource reutilised products Ensure use of recyclable materials Cars

or reusable parts Electrical home appliances

Personal computers

Pinball machines

Metal furniture

Gas and oil appliances

Bathroom and kitchen systems

Copying machines

Devices using compact rechargeable batteries

(power tools, cordless phone, electric bicycle, etc)

Specified labelled products Labelled to facilitate separate collection Aluminium and steel beverage cans

PET beverage bottles

PVC construction materials

Paper packaging

Plastic packaging

Compact rechargeable batteries

Resource recycled products Promote self-collection and recycling Compact rechargeable batteries

Personal computers

29 specified products using compact

rechargeable batteries (power tools, mobile

phones, video cameras, shavers, etc)

By-products Promote reuse of by-products Coal ash from electricity generation

as recyclable resources Construction waste

Exhibit 4.3 Key sectors affected by LPEUR

televisions and fridges/freezers were targetedas the items where the greatestenvironmental net benefit could be achieved.

Japan has ~44 million households disposingof ~18 million of these units each year,equating to ~1 million t. Before HARL,71% of these items were disposed ofthrough untargeted disposal, mostly aswaste, although there would have been asignificant quantity entering the scrap metalindustry. The remainder were exported(24%) or sold as second-hand goods (5%).

Since HARL, it would appear that ~62% areentering the take-back process andachieving an average 72% recycling rate.History does not currently relate whathappened to the 38% that do not enter, but it is assumed that they get resold orexported although there is acceptance that1-2% are ‘illegally’ disposed of which wouldsuggest fly-tipping. If this is the case, thisequates to around 100,000+ units a year, a not inconsiderable problem.

Requirement

The regulations lay down specific recyclingtargets for the four types of appliance andonly relate to household waste equipment.Business WEEE is not covered by HARL,although under LPEUR businesses have aduty to maximise recycling.

The recycling levels are as follows:

• Air conditioners 60%• Televisions 55%• Fridges/freezers 50%• Washing machines 50%

‘Recycling’ is defined as the total weight ofwaste sold for recycling or reuse divided bythe total input.

There are no targets for collection, butitems collected must be recycled throughthe system.

The system had to be in place forcommencement in April 2001, at which pointmanufacturers took responsibility for thecollection and recycling of these items.

23


24


The regulations required manufacturers andimporters to set up a national collection andrecycling infrastructure. Manufacturers splitthemselves into two groups which then setabout building the recycling plants on thebasis of shareholdings:

• Group A – 40% of the market withMatsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba as thetwo largest members: 25 recycling plants

• Group B – 60% of the market with Hitachi,Mitsubishi, Sharp, Sanyo, Sony and Fujitsuas key members: 15 recycling plants

Group A has effectively contracted out theoperation of the plants to waste managementcompanies whilst Group B has built theplants itself.

Plants are built on the basis of prime

5 LOGISTICS AND COLLECTION

CONSUMER

Exhibit 5.1 HARL system for disposal, transfer and recycling of home appliances

• 44 million households• Purchasing 18 million units per year

Paid by consumer + retail haulage cost£2-10

• Television £13.50• Refrigerator £23.00• Washing machine £12.00• Air conditioner £17.50D

ISP

OS

AL

RETAILER

• 80,000 home appliance stores• 5,500 large stores

• Take back units on replacement• Take back units previously sold

DESIGNATED COLLECTION POINT

• 380 collection points • Deliver by group brands

RECYCLING PLANT

Recycling and reuse markets

• 40 recycling plants

Must meet recycling targets• Air conditioners 60%• Televisions 55%• Refrigerators 50%• Washing machines 50%

• Collect recycling fee from retailer orPost Office using ticket

• Submit data to government

TR

AN

SFE

RR

EC

YC

LIN

G

TIC

KE

T S

YS

TE

M

manufacturers having the main shareholdingwhilst the other manufacturers and importerstake a small shareholding.

These plants are fed by a national collectionsystem operating through 380 designatedcollection points that act as bulking and transferfacilities. The plants will only take back productbrands related to their Group companies.

Collection is carried out primarily throughelectrical retailers who are required to take backused products from consumers either whenthey purchase a new product or if a consumerdelivers the old product back to where itwas bought from with proof of purchase. On delivery to the retailer, the consumer willpay a national recycling fee plus an additionalamount (£2.50 – £10) put on by the retailer tocover transport costs to the collection point.

The national recycling fees are currently:

• Television (CRT) ¥2,700 yen (~£13.50)• Fridge/freezer ¥4,600 (~£23)• Washing machine ¥2,400 (~£12)• Air conditioning unit ¥3,500 (~£17.50)

A fridge/freezer unit could therefore end upcosting the consumer over £30 on disposal.

A voucher system is used to track all itemsand enable the recycling centre to claim backthe recycling fee from the retailer (explainedlater). These vouchers can also be purchasedfrom the Post Office and consumers can takeproducts direct to the designated collectionpoints although only about 10% do. In thisinstance the recycling plant would claim therecycling fee back from the Post Office (asmunicipalities also can).

The regulations apply strict monitoringrequirements: all recycling plants are requiredto submit monthly returns showing thenumber of units received and the level ofrecycling achieved.

25


Exhibit 5.2 Location of Group A and Group B recycling plants

26


Exhibit 6.1 HARL: number of home appliances processed, 2001-2004

6 PROGRESS AND CURRENT POSITION

The regulations have provided themanufacturers with a clear basis forinvestment, ensuring guaranteed supply andcertainty of revenue. The results havetherefore been extremely encouraging andhave led to long-term development towardsimproving both recycling rates andenvironmental design.

The Group A/B system provides some degreeof individual producer responsibility therebyencouraging improvements in design fordismantlability. Indeed, it was evidentthroughout the mission visit that thecompanies operating the plants saw them asvery much part of their R&D structure, and anumber of manufacturers test their equipmentthrough the plants before it is released.

The level of recycling achieved is impressive,with year-on-year increases for both quantitiesof units collected and appliance recycling rates(Exhibits 6.1 and 6.2), but this is achieved atrelatively high cost compared to expectationsin Europe and especially in the UK.

The main reason for the high costs is theextremely high level of manual disassemblythat is applied; but if consumers are preparedto accept the high costs, there is littleincentive to reduce them. However, it wasindicated that the level of consumerdissatisfaction with the recycling fees hasgrown to such an extent that municipalitiesare complaining of significant increases inillegal disposal – fly-tipping.

27


The government is therefore said to beconsidering a review of the regulations thatwould require manufacturers to apply a visiblefee to the sale of new products. This would belikely to lead to pressure to bring down thecosts of recycling to avoid manufacturersbeing uncompetitive in the market, especiallyagainst imports, and could in turn adverselyaffect recycling rates as recycling plantslooked for savings in their recycling costs.However, it was claimed by some plantoperators that they believed that their currentmethods were as cost effective as could be

achieved because of the relative value ofrecyclables compared to disposal costs if theyweren’t recycled.

It is also interesting to review the technicaldata relating to materials recovered throughthe recycling process for 2004/5 (Exhibit 6.3).

In addition, 995 t of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)coolants were extracted from air conditioners,plus 311 t of coolant CFC and 625 t ofinsulator CFC from fridges and freezers.

Exhibit 6.2 HARL: recycling rates, 2001-2004

Material Air conditioner Television Fridge/freezer Washing machine

Iron 25,878 8,167 71,608 37,668

Copper 4,137 3,835 1,267 789

Aluminium 1,340 123 380 455

Iron/nonferrous composite 30,396 1,100 19,401 10,893

CRT glass - 60,818 - -

Other value materials 3,185 9,823 10,888 8,903

TOTAL 64,939 83,868 103,546 58,710

Exhibit 6.3 HARL: tonnes of material recovered, 2004/5

28


HARL ticketing system

One key element in the successfulimplementation of HARL is the use of aticketing or voucher system that ensures thetraceability of an EoL appliance on its journeyfrom the consumer to the recycler.Introduced about two years ago, the systemhas been found to be a very useful way ofmonitoring and tracking EoL appliances. Thesystem is administered by an organisationknown as the Home Appliance Recycling LawTicket Centre, a public foundation owned bythe Japanese government. (The ticket centreis regulated by HAPA, a trade association ofappliance manufacturers, but it is ultimatelyunder government control.)

The basic process employs five tickets per itemto be recycled and these are used to track theprogress of the appliance through the recyclingsystem. Each ‘ticket’ consists of a book of fivecopies each printed with an individual numberand, in total, costs the equivalent ofapproximately £15, although this amount variesfrom appliance to appliance. The tickets containdetails of the appliance, the name of theretailer and manufacturer and, from theinformation and reference number on theticket, consumers are able to check the statusof their appliance, eg to find out whether it hasbeen returned to the manufacturer or sent onto a third-party recycler. Consumers thus havefull traceability of their appliance via thisrelatively simple system. (They are able to findthe status of an electrical appliance which theysubmitted for recycling by accessing the webpage of the Association for Electric HomeAppliances (AEHA) and using a checkingsystem that tracks the status of all collectedelectric appliances.)

The ticketing scheme places a number ofobligations on people and organisations inorder to ensure that the process worksefficiently. For example, consumers areobliged to both cooperate in appropriatelytransferring used appliances to retailers inorder to ensure recycling and to agree to paythe necessary fees for the transfer andrecycling of those appliances. Similarly,retailers have an obligation to take back usedhome appliances both when the appliancesare those which retailers themselvespreviously sold to consumers and whenretailers sell the same kind of homeappliances to consumers. They also have anobligation to transfer them to the relevantmanufacturers or importers. Manufacturersand importers are then obligated to receiveappliances for recycling at designated take-back sites and to recycle them according tothe recycling standards set by the Japanesegovernment. To date, 46 dismantling factorieshave been established in Japan.

Retailers and manufacturers have anobligation to keep the tickets for three years.The scheme works as follows. One voucheris given to the consumer when an item isdelivered to the shop for recycling. Thisvoucher provides evidence of delivery of theappliance for recycling and payment of theappropriate fee. This fee is determined by theparticular type of equipment to be recycledand also includes an additional amount tocover the cost to the shops of transportingthe item to a take-back site. One copy isretained by the shop and the other threetravel with the item to a designated inputsite. At this point one copy stays at the siteand the final two go with the appliance to therecycling plant. The recycling plant then sendsone voucher back to the shop in order to

7 DATA RECORDING AND REPORTING

initiate payment of the recycling fee and itretains the final one for its own records. Ifconsumers take items directly to adesignated collection point, they can obtainbooks of tickets from the Post Office. Aschematic of the process is shown in Exhibit7.1 and some actual vouchers in Exhibit 7.2.

Role of the Post Office

The Japanese Post Office is used toadminister the ticketing system because it isboth convenient for the consumer andbecause it is also seen as an independentbody with the required infrastructure to copewith such a large undertaking. It also gainsrevenue from sales of tickets. This relativelysimple approach is in significant contrast tothe UK, where the possibility of establishing aclearing house was originally proposed butwas eventually shelved due to the predicted

high costs. In contrast, the Japanese havemerely utilised an asset which they alreadyhave in place.

Role of the consumer

One of the fundamental reasons why HARLappears to work so well is because theJapanese public seems extremely willing toparticipate in the scheme even though thereis actually a substantial cost incurred. Thishighlights the significant differences in bothnational culture and individual ways ofthinking between the UK and Japan.

It is difficult to conceive of the average Britishconsumer being willing to pay £15 or so tohave old appliances removed and recycled.Even before the new European WEEElegislation comes into force, it is frequentlypossible to find EoL electrical and electronicappliances abandoned at the roadside. Theimposition of a fee such as is used in Japanwould surely cause this type of illegal activityto escalate further. In Japan, although theconsumer is obligated to ensure thatredundant equipment is disposed of in thecorrect manner, there actually appear to becultural reasons that encourage individuals toparticipate in recycling.

It has also been suggested that in the nearfuture consumers may be required to provethat they have recycled their old equipmentwhen buying new equipment. This goes tothe take-back ethos where, if an appliancehas not been returned or if it has beendumped illegally, a penalty would be payable.In this case, by acting correctly, there wouldbe a built-in incentive.

Benefits to manufacturers

The ticketing scheme offers a number ofbenefits to manufacturers. For example, theyget market research information on sales oftheir appliances. They can also trace theirappliances to ensure that they have been

29


Exhibit 7.1 HARL ticketing process

Exhibit 7.2 HARL vouchers

30


DISCARDERS

Exhibit 7.3 HARL system obligations

Appropriate hand-overPaying costs neccessary for collection andrecycling

Refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, television sets

DIS

CA

RD

OBLIGATION TO TAKE BACK

OBLIGATION TO HAND OVER

(1) Goods retailers previously soldthemselves

(2) Goods to be taken back when retailerssell new ones

Can be handed overHand over

RETAILERS

Surveillance ofimplementation

Municipalities inrural areas

INDEPENDENTBODIES

CO

LLEC

T A

ND

TR

AN

SPO

RT

MANUFACTURERS &IMPORTERS

(1) In such a case that themanufacturer orimporter has alreadygone out of business

(2) When entrusted by smalland medium sizedmanufacturers orimporters

Obligation to takeback and recycle

Goods they themselvesmanufactured or imported

Obligation of appropriate arrangement of ‘designated take-back sites’ all over Japanto take back four kinds of discarded home appliances from retailers etc, andobligation of ‘implementation of recycling’ in accordance with ‘recycling standards’

INDEPENDENTBODIES

REC

YCLE

MUNICIPALITIES

MUNICIPALITIES

Securing reliabletransportation bymanifest system

disposed of correctly. This of course is veryimportant to manufacturers as it can enablethem to adjust their supply chain accordingly.It also enables them to monitor theirenvironmental reports. This is somethingwhich is deemed to be very important toJapanese companies as can be seen fromthe annual reports produced by all of themajor large companies.

Benefits to the retailer

Retailers, as with manufacturers, are able toexercise stock control, to gain marketassessments and an insight into new trends.The ticketing system gives retailers fullcompliance with HARL, something whichboth they and the manufacturers have signedagreements to uphold. Participation andsupport for the system can also give acompany the ability to extol its greencredentials.

31


Flow of collection and transportation in accordance with Home Appliances Recycling Law

Exhibit 7.4 Flow of collection and transportation in accordance with HARL

Con

sum

ers

(Dis

card

ers)

Des

igna

ted

take

-bac

k si

tes

Rec

yclin

g pl

ants

Man

ufac

ture

rs Appropriate arrangement ofdesignated take-back sites

Implementation of recycling in accordance with recyclingstandards

Manufacturers’obligation

Retailers’ obligation

Primary transportationSecondary

transportation

Ret

aile

rM

unic

ipal

ities

Manifest system

Payment of recycling fee(secondary transportation feeplus recycling treatment fee)

Payment of collection andtransportation fee (primarytransportation fee) andrecycling fee

Hand-over of discarded goods Hand-over of discarded goods

??

Benefits to the government

The ticketing system enables the governmentto gain in several ways, as it is able to collectdata on imported electronic goods and also tounderstand how the electronics sector isperforming. It also has control over recyclingand can monitor the efficiency and impact ofits home appliance recycling legislation.

In summary, the Japanese government hasput in place the ticketing system to ensurethat there is a completely transparent audittrail which can be audited at any level andwhich has the agreement and support of allthe manufacturers.

32


Flow of manifest

Keeping ofmanifest(originalsheet)

The retailerissues a copyof manifest Issues a manifest

COPY

COPY

The consumer can make sure that thediscarded home appliance has been

handed over to the manufacturer

If a retailer hands over a used home appliance directly to the manufacturer, the retailer issues amanifest to the manufacurer

Keeping ofmanifest

(copy)

Manifest is sentManifest is sent

Manifest is sent

Co

nsu

mer

Ret

aile

r

Was

teco

llect

or/

tran

spo

rter

Man

ufa

ctu

rer

Exhibit 7.5 Flow of recycling manifest

Introduction

On 5 June 1998 Japan published the Law for the Recycling of Specified Kinds of HomeAppliances after consultation with majorstakeholders. The enforcement was tocoincide with that of the Basic Law forEstablishing the Recycling-Based Society on 1 April 2001.

Eighty percent (by weight) of discardedproducts consisted of air conditioners,washing machines, CRT televisions andrefrigeration equipment. These products also

contained substances of concern such asleaded glass and ozone depleting gases.

With the assurance of the Japanesegovernment regarding costing, the majorJapanese manufacturers joined in groups(Group A and Group B – see Exhibits 8.1 and8.2) and began researching the mostefficient methodology for processing theseproduct lines.

An advanced disassembly and sorting systemknown as the ‘HEART System’ (High EfficientApplicable Recycle Technology) was

33


8 PROCESSING

Cleanup CORONA Daikin Industries Distribution Japan Electrolux Japan Engin Service GE Quartz Japan

LG Denshi Japan Matsushita Electric Industrial Morita Denko Orion ElectricOsaka Gas Samsung Japan Takagi Industrial

Techno Matsuo Toho Gas Tokyo Gas Toshiba Carrier Toshiba Corporation Toshiba Video Products Japan Victor Co of Japan

Exhibit 8.1 Group A companies

Ace International Japan Aiwa Amway Japan ASCO Japan BALS Corporation Best Denki Chofu Seisakusho Creative Yoko Daewoo Electronics Japan Designated Corporation, NEC Eco 21 Fujitsu General Funai Electric GEAEC Haier Japan Hitachi Home & LifeSolutions Hitachi Joei Tech

Hitachi Living Supply INTERCONP Iwatani International Koizumi SeikiKyushu Takemura Electronic Meikoh Enterprise Miele Japan Mitsubishi Electric Mitsubishi Electric EngineeringMitsubishi Heavy Industries Mitsubishi Trading National Federation ofUniversity Co-operativeAssociations Nissho Iwai Mechatronics Nitto ReinetsuNoritzONKYO LIV

Pioneer Electronic Rinnai Ryohin Keikaku Sanyo Electric Sanyo Electric Air Conditioning SawafujiSeiwa Electric Senju Sharp SOKO Sony Toyotomi Tsann Kuen International Tsunashima Tsunashima House Ware Twinbird Yoshii Denki

Exhibit 8.2 Group B companies

developed following experimentation withwhole product shredding and manual removalof materials from conveyor lines andcryogenic immersion of products in liquidnitrogen (-120ºC) and crushing technologies.Although some cryogenic process continues,it is considered impractical with desiredthroughputs. Shredding and picking linescontaminate materials with hazardoussubstances, prevent reuse of certaincomponents and it is considered a health andsafety risk to the workforce.

Eventually a basic concept was developedwhich can still be seen today at the majorityof processing plants, combining manualdepollution or pretreatment with shreddingand separation technologies. The systemdeveloped (Exhibit 8.3) considered thepossible future inclusion of other productlines such as office equipment, vendingmachines and gas instruments.

Processing systems

The processing plants visited by the missionteam in 2005 still appeared to follow theoriginal concept (Exhibit 8.4).

Receive and store

Identify and weigh

Manual disassembly

Shred and crush

Material separation

Despatch

Exhibit 8.4 Process flow

EoL products arrive at processing plants in‘group’ containers. These containers havebeen designed by each group, dependent ondiffering requirements. They are colour coded– Blue = Group A, Yellow = Group B – andmanufactured in China.

34


Exhibit 8.3 An early Japanese basic processing concept

The containers are product specific on arrivalso some form of sorting has already takenplace, presumably at the manufacturer’scollection facility, of which each groupmanages 190 facilities. Eighty percent ofproducts are Japanese.

Products also arrive group specific: Group Aplants only process Group A products, aconvenient system that is unique to Japaneseculture, and a benefit unlikely to work outsideJapan. Also each individual product carries thefifth sheet of the HARL manifest including barcode; these are read by bar code readers andthe information contained uploaded to themanagement software system and to theAEHA website where consumers can monitorthe movements of their discarded appliances:www.rkc.aeha.or.jp (only available in Japanese).

Manual depollution or pretreatment

The four product types are sorted into lines,before any manual disassembly; the productis identified by its bar code and weighed.Each product type then follows a prescribeddisassembly procedure.

• Refrigerators

Any single type polymers such as saladcrispers or vegetable drawers are removedand granulated with others of the samepolymer type. Plastic coated steel shelves areremoved along with the magnetic door seals.Refrigeration units are then aligned to aid

refrigerant gas removal, using a mechanicallifting device. The gas is vacuumed into acontainer which is located on a scale system,allowing the monitoring of the refrigerant gasremoved and determining the contents of thecontainer, to allow replacement when full. The compressor is then removed, punctured anddrained of oil. The remaining carcass is thenpositioned ready for shredding.

• CRT televisions

The casings are unscrewed and identified bymaterial type; cabling, speakers, PCBs,copper rich components, steel banding andelectron guns are all removed and separatelycontainerised for further processing. Some ofthe plants visited went on to separate thedifferent glass types using the ‘hot wire’method; at METEC this procedure has beenautomated using an optical system for thepositioning of the hot wire. Others send theremainder to other plants for separation.Sealing with tape or adding water containedthe phosphorus coating on the panel glass.

Exhibit 8.6 Removed TV speakers at Tokyo Eco Recycle

Exhibit 8.7 Automated glass separation at METEC

35


Exhibit 8.5 Refrigerant degassing line and mechanicalhandling at Hyper Cycle Systems

• Washing machines

The major differences noted betweenJapanese and European washing machineswere that Japanese units were upright twintubs with salt water counterweights whereasEuropean units tend to be front loaders withconcrete counterweights. The usual manualdisassembly of cabling, PCBs and single typematerial was observed; in addition a purpose-built press was used for separating motordrives from PP tubs and extracting salt waterfrom the counterweights.

• Air conditioners

The major task in the processing of airconditioning units is the removal of refrigerantgases – ozone depleting substances such asCFCs, or hydrocarbon greenhouse gases. Theremainder of the unit is becoming more andmore single type material and copper-rich heatexchangers, all of which is separated. Theremaining carcasses of these appliances thengo through a shredding and separation process.

Processing technologies

The five processing plants visited by themission all had noise, odour and dustabatement systems, and all seemed to havesimilar primary shredders – a vertical designcombining shredder and hammer millproperties. All investigations indicated theseprimary shredders all came from one of twomakers: Kubota and Kinki kogyo.

At least one processing plant had requestedmodifications to be made to their Kinki kogyounit and now their parent company holds thepatent for this design.

Only one twin-shaft wheel shredder was seenat METEC for processing refrigeration units.

Exhibit 8.13 Twin-shaft shredder (German system)

36


Exhibit 8.11 Kinki shredder(source: ww.kinkikogyo.co.jp/tategata.html)

Exhibit 8.9 Washingmachine disassembly atTokyo Eco Recycle

Exhibit 8.10 Air conditioner line at Hyper Cycle Systems

Exhibit 8.8 Washingmachine handling atMETEC

Exhibit 8.12 Shredder outputs at Tokyo Eco Recycle

The next standard processing observed was amagnetic separation device such as a rotatingband magnet for removing ferrous materials. Allprocessing plants claimed between 99.5% and99.8% purity rates for ferrous outputs. Then acombination of eddy current and specificgravity separation units was used to separatealuminium, copper and polymers, with all plantsclaiming between 97% and 99% purity rates.

Refrigeration systems were processedthrough a polyurethane air separator and thefoam was heated to extract the maximumamount of blowing agent from the foammatrix. The foam was processed through alarge diameter outlet briquetter.

Exhibit 8.14 Briquetted polyurethane foam (Japan)

Television glass types were processedthrough a crusher and despatched as cullet.

Some plants were further developing plasticseparation by type, predominantly by specificgravity or flotation, or a combination of both.Polymer separation by type appeared to bethe next important issue to the processingcompanies, if not in-house by otherprocessing plants.

Summary

A great deal can be learnt from the systemsused in Japan, although much of theworkings are dependent on Japanese cultureand would not transplant to the UK orEurope. The many experiences anddevelopments made by such a well-organisedculture and people would transfer into the UKas genuine cost savings in logistics andprocessing and – particularly so – to the valueadded to the material due to manualdisassembly. Markets for these materialsrequire quality and quantity; the ‘Japanesesystem’ seems to increase quality withoutaffecting quantity.

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Exhibit 8.15 A précis of ‘The Japanese System’ (source: www.jfe-steel.co.jp/archives/en/nkk_giho/ 85/pdf/85_09.pdf)

Refrigerator

Air conditioner

Washingmachine

Television

Removal of chlorofluorocarbon

Removal of plastics, etc

Removal of chlorofluorocarbon


Removal of brine


Removal of CRT


Electrical appliance Manual dismantling

Glass cullet

Crushing machine Air separator

Cyclone

Magneticseparator

Manually sorted articles

Plastics (utilised as raw material for blast furnace)Chlorofluorocarbon for cooling medium (subcontracted)Cable (non-ferrous metal refining)PCBs (non-ferrous metal refining)Oil (subcontracted)Brine (subcontracted)

Chlorofluorocarboncollection facility

Urethane compactor

Eddy currentseparator

Steel scrap(raw material for

steel manufacture)

Crushing & sorting facility

Convertor

Blast furnace

Chlorofluorocarbon(subcontracted)

Urethane(raw material

for blast furnace)

Non-ferrous metal(raw material for

steel manufacture)

Shredder dust(raw material foriron manufacture)

Plastics

Thermo bath(under

examination)

Non-ferrousmetal

The mission to Japan was to take anoverview of electronics recycling technologiesand report back on any new or developingtechnologies that may be of any interest toUK companies. Of particular interest was theplastics recycling and reuse element.

Despite preconception before the mission,the level of product disassembly found inJapan is similar to that seem in the UK atplaces such as the Hampshire Trust recyclingsite in Portsmouth. The difference is in scaleand efficiency. The majority of disassembly ismanual on a production line basis, lookingmuch like an assembly plant in reverse.Dedicated lines for each major HARL item arestandard, and segregation of the incoming‘product’ by both type and manufacturer isobviously a very significant advantage.

In general the ‘good quality’ of the returnedgoods was apparent, with no evidence of theUK policy of ‘compacting’ WEEE goods intoskips. There was no evidence of post-consumer damage that is common in the UKwaste stream. This is patently a product of themanufacturer ‘take-back’ system previouslymentioned, reinforced by cultural attitudestowards cleanliness, recycling and protectingthe environment. Whether this attitude isextended to post-consumer goods not fallingunder the HARL legislation was difficult togauge as the mission did not see any, otherthan small quantities of PCs being recycled.

The main ‘novel’ investment in the recyclingcentres seemed to be in avoiding manualhandling by the use of air lifts and motorisedconveyors but this was by no meansuniversal and the whole process still involveda very high degree of manual labour.

Unlike the assembly plants for these goodsthere was no evidence of robotic dismantling,the nearest to it being the near universal hot-wire machine to separate funnel and tubeglass of televisions.

Easy-release technology – smartdisassembly

The mission team were also looking atemerging technologies and development ofcurrent and newly implemented technologiessuch as active disassembly (AD). This is amethod of disassembling products into theirseparate components, and is a significantstep towards meeting of WEEE requirementsby manufacturers. Any singular or combineduse of specifically engineered and smartmaterials, adhesives, layers and parts, integralor discrete, plays a key role within AD. Itallows for a cleaner, nondestructive, quickerand more efficient method of componentseparation. The term ADSM (activedisassembly using smart materials) istherefore synonymous with AD. Robotics canalso be used within AD and is referred to as‘automatic disassembly’.

The mission visited all major manufacturers inthe electronics industry such as Panasonic,Sony, Hitachi and Sharp, and asked whetherAD technology was being considered forimplementation within their product range. Allexcept Sharp said that they had no interest inthe technology. Although this may be true italso may be because the topic iscommercially sensitive. Sharp’s development– ‘easy-release technology’ – is beingimplemented in one of its products.

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9 PRODUCT DISASSEMBLY

39


A video was shown of a shape-memory alloywasher being used on a screw fixing for abattery casing. Immersion in boiling watercaused the split c-washer to expand andrelease the screw fixing. This has greatpotential for the rapid dismantling ofappliances using heat instead of manuallabour and shredding machinery. However, itwas apparent that this was not in commonusage and was not seen in the post-consumer goods being recycled. Subsequentintelligence in the UK has indicated that thetechnique is also being used by Sharp insome of its LCD screen manufacturing, butagain probably only in high-value items.

The product they revealed to us that was intrial mass production was a mains charger fora mobile phone; the units were beingproduced in Poland. However, having seenthe presentation they gave to us it is evidentthat they may well be using this technology inLCD flat panels for televisions.

The AD technology used was in the form of‘shape-memory washers’. Shape-memorymaterials can be polymers or metal alloys.Such a material is manufactured to hold a setshape until it is taken to a triggertemperature, at which point it adopts asecond set shape. When the product needsto be disassembled it can usually be heatedor cooled. At this point the snap-fit willautomatically transform to allow release.Trigger temperatures can be set to a fairlyaccurate range of values. However, in theliterature other means of triggering thedisassembly through microwave, infrared,pressure, sound, electric current or magneticfields have also been studied.

Exhibit 9.1 is an example of the shape-memory washer being used by Sharp and anexample of the system that the EoL productwill pass though to be disassembled, thisillustration showing a temperature modelwhich triggers the disassembly process. Itwill be interesting to see how EoL productsthat have this technology built in are dealtwith. The recycling market will have to evolveto deal with this new challenge.

Exhibit 9.1 Shape-memory washer and example ofdisassembly system (courtesy Sharp)

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10 MATERIALS RECOVERY AND MARKETS

10.1 Plastics recycling

The majority of plastics recycling informationcame from a presentation by Mr Kamaguchiof Sharp who was extremely knowledgeableand helpful.

Plastics account for 20-40% of the massprocessed but over 50% of the volume. Japanestimates that the disposal volume of electricalwaste will increase 1.4 times by 2010, andlandfill space will be exhausted by 2008.

Quantities of plastics arising from electricaland electronic (E&E) waste appliances inJapan are estimated as:

• HARL appliances 150,000 t/y• Photocopiers 15,000 t/y• PCs >10,000 t/y

Sharp presented a summary of availablerecycling routes for plastics (Exhibit 10.1).

In order to build a sustainable, reuse society,it is necessary to promote self-recyclingmaterials as much as possible – using theclosed material recycling (CMR) route.

Open material recycling often leads to only onereuse cycle before eventual disposal to landfill.

An explanation was given of the many factorsthat could lead to degradation of materialproperties during the lifetime of a plasticcomponent (Exhibit 10.2).

Sharp has developed a way to analyse theantioxidant level in the recovered material,and conjectures that antioxidant is‘consumed’ during the lifetime of a plasticcomponent. When the level drops below athreshold level (~100 ppm) then the materialproperties begin to tail off rapidly asmolecular degradation occurs. It is possible torevitalise the lifetime of polymers by addingmore antioxidant to the resin before re-extruding (Exhibit 10.3).

The inclusion of foreign bodies in the polymermatrix also leads to a reduction in materialstrength due to stress concentration effects (asmeasured by the Izod impact strength test).This problem was being overcome by improvedwashing methods and the use of melt filtrationto minimise the level of foreign parts.

Closed material recycling (CMR) Reuse as plastic parts in E&E goods

Open material recycling Reuse for other plastic goods

Chemical recycling Pyrolysis, or breakdown to monomer

Thermal Incineration and combustion

Exhibit 10.1 Classification of plastics recycling (courtesy Sharp)

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Exhibit 10.3 Plastic deterioration characteristics (courtesy Sharp)

Exhibit 10.2 Factors leading to degradation of plastics (courtesy Sharp)

Deterioration

ColouringCrazingCracks

Light

Plas

tic m

ould

ed p

arts

Heat Moisture Micro-organisms

Mechanicalstress

Electricalaction Chemicals Atmospheric

pollutants

UV rays

Temperaturedifferences

Sunlight

High/lowtemperature

Rain, snow

Condensation

Bacteria

Mould

Tracking

Internal strain

Externalstress

Detergent

Arcs, sparks

NOx

Colorants

Dust

x product

A

Residual amountof antioxidant

Life of plastic

Property values

Remaining life

Thresholdvalue

Number of years elapsed

BC

New

}

xx

1 When the antioxidant concentration drops below the threshold value (~100 ppm or ‘C’), the properties of the plastics decline abruptly

2 The remaining life of plastics in the wasted products ranges from B to C

3 To use the plastics as raw material for new products, their life must be improved up to point A

4 It is crucial to develop technology for evaluating remaining life and improving life

Deterioration characteristics

An example was given of the CMR route forthe polypropylene (PP) material fromrecovered washing machine drums. The partto be recycled is first carefully separated fromthe machine and other parts (eg a hydraulichub-puller was used for drive-motor removal).Sharp showed a video clip of the closed-looprecycling process for this material, illustrating:

• Drum disassembly method• Initial cleaning of adhered

dirt/residues/labels• Shredding on site – down to ~10 mm chips• Water washing in vertical rotary friction

washer • Drying with rotary dryer unit• Analysis to determine the degree of

antioxidant in the recyclate chips – as thebasis to evaluate remaining lifetime of thepolymer

• Mixing with antioxidant additive (in tumblemixer)

• Melt filtration in extruder• Pellet forming in water bath system

Finished plastic pellets are reused to makelarge parts for Sharp products (eg condensercover plate for rear of A/C unit, or fridge backcover tray). Product moulding examples shownwere 100% recycled resin. Sharp has utilised420 t of recovered plastic in closed-loopapplications in the four HARL product types in2004. It has set a target of 500 t in 2005(estimated at around 7-10% of plant annualtonnage, if all from the Osaka plant).

Plastic recycling rates

The data collected centrally by METI for theoverall recycling rate in Japan show the levelof plastics found in disposed items incomparison to the target recycling rates foreach HARL product. The estimated fraction ofplastic by mass in the four product streamscompared with the recycling target is shownin Exhibit 10.4.

A set of pie charts by METI analysing thematerial types actually recycled for eachproduct group has very small sectionsdedicated to ‘other valuable materials’(estimated at 2-10% by mass). This materialgrouping is stated to include ‘printed circuitboards and other plastics’.

At several of the sites visited by the mission thecompanies were claiming much higher levels ofactual recycling (eg 80-95%) than the targetfigures. These higher levels can only be claimedif a high proportion of the plastics content isbeing recycled (or recovered).

For example, at Sony’s Green Cycle centrethe quoted recycling rates for 2004 were:

• Air conditioner 91.4%• Television 92.9%• Refrigerator 81.5%• Washing machine 89.5%

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Exhibit 10.4 Estimated plastic fraction by mass in HARL product streams (courtesy METI)

ProductPlastic fraction ineach item

Recycling targetRecycling ratereported 2003

Air conditioner 17.5% 60% 81%

Television 16.2% 55% 78%

Refrigerator 43.4% (inc foam) 50% 63%

Washing machine 34.7% 50% 65%

At Hitachi’s Tokyo Eco Recycle, Dr Kenji Babaquoted a recycling rate of 98% (although theaverage was stated as 70% elsewhere in thepresentation).

The measurement of the recycling rate mustbe analysed to understand this information. Itis clear that the individual companies areincluding thermal recycling of mixed wasteplastics – and also urethane foam used asrefuse-derived fuel (RDF) – in their in-housefigures. This would not count towardsrecycling in the UK.

The sites visited by the mission were also likelyto be the ‘showcase’ establishments for eachcompany. As the larger firms operate severalrecycling centres, there is likely to be a reducedrecycling rate at the sites where less advancedtechnology is being applied.

Recycling techniques

All the sites visited were employing manualdismantling to remove hazardous materials(mostly CFC refrigerants; CRTs) and any largecomponents such as drive motors or washingmachine drums. These large componentswere being separately collected for recyclingwith an emphasis being placed upon goodquality of strip-down to give a high purity ofthe recycled material.

The type of plastic components seen to beremoved were:

• Washing machine drums – PP• Large moulded bases and covers for

washing machines – acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)

• Fridge trays and vegetable boxes –polystyrene (PS) or PP

• TV casings and back covers – PS or PP• Air conditioners – covers and fans

In most instances there was an emphasis oncollection of clean components, with effortbeing seen to remove labels and adhered dirt.

Similar plastic types were collected togetherand then diverted to dedicated shreddingmachines to reduce the polymer to ~10 mmchips. This material was then sent off-site forfurther processing.

TV casings were being removed at all sites,but there was no visual evidence of at-lineanalysis of polymer type or any attempt tostream the casings by brominated flame-retardant content. It was stated at twocompanies that up to 60% of the TV casingsdo contain brominated additives. This meansthat the shredded plastic from this particularstream is finding its way into lower-gradeapplications in non-E&E goods.

Of particular note was the use of brominatedplastic generated from the Hitachi plant. Anexample of using the brominated content toprovide flame-retardant benefits was seen inthe production of a cable-tray conduit usedfor the laying of power cables alongsiderailway lines. This is a durable productapplication where the flame-retardantproperties are of continued lifelong benefit.

However, in most cases the quantity ofplastic being manually removed from the fourproduct types was observed to be fairly lowin relation to the total plastic content of theitems. This means that a large proportion ofthe plastic is only released for recycling in thedownstream bulk shredding process.

Most sites were using a similar format ofvertical shredder to size-reduce the strippedbodies or casings. It was judged that heavy,dense components such as drive motors werebeing manually removed prior to shredding inorder to reduce wear on the equipment.

All plants were operating some form of airclassifier or dust blower to remove theurethane foam and other dirt post-shredding.This was then followed by metal recovery usingmagnetic and eddy-current equipment. In themajority of plants the residual stream was a

43


mixed plastic material in the form of 5-10 mmshredded chips (Exhibit 10.5). When questionedit was clear that this polymer mix was beingsent for thermal recovery via incineration or asreducing agent at blast furnaces.

There were only two sites where some effortwas being made to separate the polymertypes from the bulk stream:

• METEC – the fridge plastic was fed into adensity separation line that included a high-g spinning disc water cyclone togenerate a good split between the PP andPS materials. It was stated that PVC wasalso being removed, possibly using a highdensity solution method.

• Sony – some form of sink float facility wasin operation to wash and remove PPmaterial (although the final productappeared visually of low quality).

METEC also had a screened-off section of theplant where further plastics separationtechnology was under development. In thedevelopment laboratory the mission teamwere shown samples of high-purity plasticwhich were stated to have positive value forreuse applications.

In all cases it was difficult to make anaccurate assessment of the continuousprocessing systems because they weremostly enclosed in soundproof rooms or onlyable to be viewed from remote galleries.

10.2 Glass recycling

Simple, manual CRT removal was beingapplied at most of the sites. Effort was madeto scrape off labels and excess dirt. The X-ray tube was being manually removed from theCRT cone either with a disc grinder or byusing a file and breaker tube. Minimalconcern was given to the release of phosphorpowders, with one site pouring some waterinto the open hole of the CRT and anotherapplying some sticky tape.

Stripped down CRTs were being stacked incages with blankets to prevent breakage atmost sites. These cages were then shippedto another site for glass recovery.

Only at METEC did the mission observe asystem for CRT splitting. This utilised an in-house design of hot-wire cutter as follows:

• The CRT (less X-ray tube) was fitted ontothe cutting jig

• A camera device raised the tube up to thelevel of the frit (weld) between the coneand the face glass

• A glass cutter arm made a score mark onthe tube as it was rotated, at a level 10 mm from the frit join

• A hot-wire band about 3 mm thick waswound around the tube and heat applied tocause a break on the score line

• After lifting off the cone section and metalshield, a manual vacuum brush was usedto remove the phosphor coating

This type of technology has been furtherdeveloped and is now available commerciallyacross Europe from a range of equipmentsuppliers.

Sony mentioned a process to clean the CRTglass which was able to grind off the graphitecoating from the cone glass, but this was at aremote site.

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Exhibit 10.5 Residual mixed plastic chips

It was commonly stated that CRT glass wasbeing used to manufacture new CRTs,although with the TV market becomingdominated by LCDs and flat screens this maynot be sustainable.

LCD recycling

No LCD TV equipment was seen coming intothe recycling plants, which is strange becausethere must be some broken units enteringthe waste stream. It can only be assumedthat as they do not strictly conform as aHARL product no legal recycling is required.

We saw a large plasma screen stripped downfor assessment in the METEC developmentlaboratory, and Sharp mentioned some workon LCD recycling and indium recovery.

Some laptop LCD displays were separatelystored at both Sony and Hitachi, with somecare being taken to remove the halogen backlights. On questioning we were told theywere destined for incineration. Clearly themercury content was a problem.

10.3 Metal recycling

No novel metal recovery technologies wereseen at any location, with the usualseparation techniques of magnetic, Foucaultand eddy-current separation being used.Clearly density separation used to upgradethe plastic fraction produced a metal-richcontaminated plastic stream.

As some of the major manufacturers in eachGroup have metal production facilities (egMitsubishi), the bulk of novel separation maybe done elsewhere. Thermal recoveries of thevarious fractions were mentioned at varioussites. These included secondary aluminiumsmelter, primary iron and steel with arecycled element and copper refineries usedto recover the precious metal group (PMG)from the associated copper fraction.

As with the plastics fractions, CMR of thevarious metals was considered desirable, andclearly this is in fact easier with metals thanplastics in any case. As many of thecompanies involved have interests in otherconsumer goods, in the transport sector andother manufacturing, finding a friendly partnerwilling to reuse ‘recycled waste material’ isobviously easier than in the UK and Europe.

On a less obvious note, culturally thereseems to be no particular barrier to reusingmaterials from waste in manufacturing newproducts, unlike the UK and continentalEurope. Recycling appears ingrained in theJapanese psyche and consequently there is anatural expectation that products will have ahigh proportion of recycled material. Thedebate about ‘when is a waste not a waste’does not seem to arise in Japan.

The four HARL items contain a number ofdiffering metals that can be recovered;however, the metals need to be separatedtaking into account the depollution concernsand the economic element as well during thedisassembly phase.

The mission was shown how differing metalswere physically separated from plastics as faras economically possible. However, there areoccasions where a particular component ofplastic is bonded to the metal and it would notmake economic sense to separate theseparts. An example is a washing machinecircuit board which is encased, or ‘potted’, inclear plastic so as to eliminate short circuits.

The main parts of all four machines areseparated prior to crushing or shredding, themain metals recovered from each machinebeing as follows:

• Washing machine: steel, aluminium, copper • Television: steel, copper • Air conditioner: steel, copper, aluminium,

cast iron• Fridge: steel, copper, aluminium

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The above metals are separated as theyemerge from the crushing/shredding processand are separated further by varying meansas described above.

Exhibit 10.6 is an illustration of eddy-currentseparation for ferrous and nonferrous metals;this ensures that the material collected is of auniform standard.

Only one company visited dealt with EoL PCBsand that was the Green Cycle Corporation(Sony). All other sites visited sent the PCBsdirectly to smelters for metal recovery. It canonly be assumed that Green Cycle has as oneof its stakeholders a smelter which can absorbthe cost as it is kept in ‘the family’.

Tokyo Eco Recycle even went as far as usingspecialised equipment (Exhibit 10.7) topulverise and reduce the amount of plasticcovering, delivering a higher-grade metal waste.

Ferrous wastes from casings of washingmachines and air conditioner units along withstraps from televisions were reduced to ~30 mm pieces and then sent to steelproducers for processing into new material.

Compressors from fridges are normally keptseparate as they are drained of oil, sent forshredding, and then collected with all theother ferrous metals.

46


Exhibit 10.6 Rotating drum (eddy current) metal separator

Exhibit 10.7 Shredder (courtesy Tokyo Eco Recycle)

LCD recycling

A brief summary was given of Sharp’s workin the recycling technology for LCD screens.They have developed guidelines for the saferemoval of mercury backlights and removal ofthe liquid crystal material. They appear to beworking on a method to remove indium fromLCD glass by acid dissolution, but detailswere limited. The future goal is to reach100% recycling of LCD TV sets.

Plant-based plastics mixing with PPrecyclates

Use of plant-based polymers is increasing inJapan; examples were shown of a Walkmancasing made from polylactide (PLA).

Sharp has worked on recycling of plant-basedplastics mixed with PP. This gave a problemdue to the noncompatible nature of the twomaterials (one plant-based, one mineral-based). Sharp has developed a compatibliserchemical (a copolymer chain molecule ofpolyester-PLA-polyester) that made the‘particles’ of PLA disperse into the PP matrix.This caused a large improvement in thestrength of the polymer.

Sharp predicts a large increase in the use ofplant-based materials, and these will need tobe compatible with mineral-based polymersfor ease of future recycling.

47


11 FUTURE TRENDS

Overview of government, academic andlegislative drivers

There is a clear goal to progress homeappliance and other electronics recycling withinJapan. One of the key reasons is that Japanwill run out of landfill in the near future –however, this needs further investigation dueto conflicting information (eg some companiesquoting the year 2008 and some giving 13.1years of landfill from 2002). Municipal solidwaste (MSW) treatment methods are heavilyskewed to incineration (78.4%) with recycling(17.3%) and landfill (4.3%) coming in secondand third place6 and with home appliancesrepresenting only 2% of MSW7. Othermotivations for accelerating recycling of homeappliance and other electronics includeadvanced knowledge development relative toEurope and North America and ultimatelymedium/longer-term competitive advantage.

‘The Japanese System’ gave Japanesecompanies the confidence and certainty inthe late nineties to make investmentdecisions to build recycling plants andinfrastructure, eg on the basis that the HomeAppliance Recycling Law (HARL) wasimplemented as planned in 2001. In addition,

the requirement that consumers must pay aprimary logistics fee and a recycling fee hasmeant that there is a guaranteed andpredictable income for the corporate ownersof the recycling plants. However, the actualeconomics of the recycling plants are notentirely clear, eg some recycling plants seemto have received capital and other grants fromgovernment. It appears that most of therecycling plants were set up as pilots from1999 and came on stream from 2001,therefore allowing problems to be sorted outbefore coming into full operation.

There seems to be between 42 and 50recycling plants focused on HARL requirements(depending on company definition) – and theseare split between the A and B Groups (quotedas 30 in Group A, 16 in Group B and three jointlyowned). The exact number, geographicaldistribution and types of recycling plants areslightly unclear as they appear to depend ondefinition. There also appears to be 380 take-back sites, 190 controlled by Group A and 190controlled by Group B6.

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)statistics indicate that the recycling rates forthe four product categories covered by HARL

48


12 MISSION FINDINGS

6 Ministry of Environment (2002) in British Embassy presentation (2005)

7 Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI) (undated) in British Embassy presentation (2005)

Appliance type Recycling target (HARL) Actual recycling rate (2004)

Air conditioner 60% 82%

Television 55% 81%

Refrigerator 50% 64%

Washing machine 50% 68%

Exhibit 12.1 HARL recycling targets and actual rates, 2004 (source: Mitsubishi presentation, 2005)

49


(televisions, washing machines, air conditionersand refrigerators) are being overachieved as aresult of the ‘buy-in’ from all key stakeholders inJapan, ie consumers, industry and government.It should be noted that the Japanese define therecycling rate as ‘weight of materials recycled’divided by ‘weight of unit treated’6.

In the five recycling plants visited (MatsushitaEco Technology Centre – METEC(Matsushita), Hyper Cycle SystemsCorporation (Mitsubishi Electric), KansaiRecycle Systems (Sharp), Green CycleCorporation (Sony) and Tokyo Eco Recycle(Hitachi)) much of the technology used seemsto be low tech, similar and with a high labourcontent, eg manual disassembly. Many of therecycling plants seem to be using their owntechnologies with several stating that theyhad patented particular processes.

Green Cycle Corporation (Sony) and Tokyo EcoRecycle (Hitachi) seem to be at arm’s lengthfrom their mother companies, ie they arecontractors, with their own profit and loss andbalance sheet responsibilities, whereas METEC(Matsushita) gave the impression of beingmore closely linked to the corporate body.

The ownership of each recycling plant seemsto be dominated by one key shareholder withfinancial contributions from other members ofeither Group A or B, dependent on whichGroup the recycling plant belongs to.

The Law for Promotion of Effective Utilisationof Resources (LPEUR) was also passed in2001 and seems to have much broader remitby product category and coverage, eg itcovers both eco-design and recycling. Forexample, since April 2001 computermanufacturers have been required to designproducts that consider the 3Rs (reduce,reuse, recycle) and are also obliged to collectand recycle end-of-life (EoL) computers frombusiness. Manufacturers have also been

required to collect and recycle computersdischarged from households since October2003. The details and obligations of LPEURwere not highlighted by any of the companiesvisited and this is an area that needs furtherinvestigation especially in relation tocomputers and mobile phone recycling(British Embassy presentation (2005)).

A key learning is that – in effect – the ownersof the recycling plants have had approximatelysix years’ experience of running the ‘recyclingsystems’ for televisions, air conditioners,washing machines and fridges. This ‘recyclingsystem’ includes, for example, the collection,logistics, storage, sorting and recyclinginvolving a range of different stakeholders, egconsumers, retailers, the Post Office,manufacturers, logistics companies andrecyclers. Therefore the key lead that theJapanese have is the knowledge andinformation on how to design, develop andrun recycling systems, infrastructure andplants focused on these product categories.They would interpret this as their ‘intellectualproperty’ (IP) which they could offer to UKalliances and joint ventures (JVs).

There was evidence of advances of eco-design,eg ‘design for disassembly’ (Hitachi) and use of‘automated disassembly used smart materials’(ADSM) for a battery charger (Sharp). Subsequent research would also indicate thatSharp is using similar techniques in the latestflat-panel TVs. Hitachi mentioned that Toshibawas also developing similar software, althoughthis was not covered in the Toshiba visit. Hitachialso highlighted the problem that mainstreamdesign engineers are not always au fait withenvironmental considerations and the challengeof producing tools for non-specialists, eg designengineers generally do not have the time orprimary motivation to be environmental experts,therefore they need simple tools and rules tohelp with decision-making. For furtherinformation see the eco-design mission report8.

8 The ‘state of the art’ in eco-design in the Japanese electronics sector, final report, 1 November 2002, published for DTI by the Centre for Sustainable Design

(CfSD) at Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College

There was evidence at Tokyo Eco Recycle thatsome waste products were being convertedinto green products to sell to government inrelation to the requirements of the GreenPurchasing Law (also passed in 2001).

It appeared that only METEC is systematicallypassing new products through a testrecycling system. Green Cycle and Tokyo EcoRecycle both implied that they would be keento do such testing for a fee, but it was nothappening on a continuous basis.

It appears that the METEC facility is ademonstration plant with a very strongemphasis on education and communications.In a similar vein, Tokyo Eco Recycle seems tobe developing a model with a strong focus onproducing high quality, real-time managementinformation possibly as a focus for thedevelopment of a software simulation program.

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Japan’s household appliance recyclingregulations and the framework in which theyoperate sit in stark contrast to the UK’sdysfunctional approach to the application ofwaste-related legislation. The Japanese havethe advantage of being able to set their owntimetable and structure without theconstraints of Europe that the UK has tooperate within; nevertheless, there wouldseem to be clear lessons that the UK couldlearn from the Japanese approach:

1 Coordinate government departments.There appears to be an acceptanceamongst government departments of theirown roles within legislative developmentwith strong support appearing to be givento lead departments.

2 Industry input. There appears to be amuch closer working relationship betweengovernment departments and the relevantindustries when it comes to creatinglegislation.

3 Timetables. The government would seemto be able to set a clear timetable forimplementation that gives industry theknowledge and certainty to invest in thenecessary infrastructure.

4 Clear strategic aims. There appears to bea well coordinated long-term strategic planin place that avoids reactive knee-jerkpolicies and gives all stakeholders anoverarching understanding of their roles.

It was clear that Japanese society is not so costdriven as the UK and that they seem preparedto overinvest in order to get it right, a culturethat seems to extend throughout Japanesesociety. Whether that can continue, of course,remains to be seen but it was certainlyrefreshing to see a system that seemed moreconcerned about where it was going than abouthow cheaply it could get there.

Plastics technology

In general, the level of plastics recyclingtechnology being employed was not thought tobe of a particularly novel or innovative standard.The exceptions to this were the excellent re-compounding work seen at Sharp and themechanical hydrocyclone displayed at METEC.

Manual dismantling to recover largecomponents of a single, easily identifiedpolymer type was being applied in all plants,although with varying degrees of diligence.The plastic parts seen being removedmanually will probably account for less than10% of the total item mass.

The four products included under HARL arerelatively low in plastic content comparedwith smaller household goods that fall underthe UK legislation. Application of well-provenmetal recovery methods and CRT glassrecycling is able to deliver the majority of therecycling rate needed to achieve theJapanese targets on these four appliances. Inaddition, inclusion of thermal recovery(incineration) as part of the in-house recyclingrate calculation makes it possible forindividual sites to state very high materialrecovery rates.

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13 CONCLUSIONS

The mission team would like to express theirsincere thanks to the many individuals andbodies that made this mission possible:

• The Mini-Waste Faraday Partnership, nowthe Resource Efficiency KnowledgeTransfer Network, which acted as theprincipal coordinating body

• The DTI Global Watch Service, particularlyDavid Thompson, for providing financialsupport and advice

• Paul Johnson (First Secretary, Science andTechnology) at the British Embassy inTokyo and his colleagues Seiko Oya andRyozo Tanaka for negotiating and securingan excellent programme of visits and theirfaultless organisational arrangements onthe ground

• Mr Kakuchi our translator, guide and‘minder’ who kept us to our schedule,ensured we were always at the right placeat the right time, and advised on mattersof protocol in addition to faultlesstranslation when required

• The DTI International Technology Promoter(ITP) network, particularly the ITP forEnvironmental and Sustainable EnergyTechnologies in Japan, David Scott

• All the individuals and companies the teamvisited who were extremely open andhelpful in making themselves available toanswer our questions and show us roundtheir facilities

52


Appendix AACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Exhibit A.1 Mr Kakuchi – translator, guide and ‘minder’

53


Appendix BMISSION TEAM DETAILS

Exhibit B.1 The mission team at Tokyo Eco Recycle; L to R: Mr Kakuchi (translator), Martin Charter, MartinGoosey, Keith Freegard, Peter Murphy, Arnold Black, Stuart Randall, David Scott, Ryozo Tanaka (Senior S&T Officer,British Embassy Tokyo) (Phil Conran is missing from the picture because he was taking the photo!)

C-Tech Innovation LtdCapenhurst Technology ParkChester CH1 6EHUK

T +44 (0)151 347 2914F +44 (0)151 347 2901www.ctechinnovation.com

Arnold Black BSc, FIChemE, CEOperation Director Resource Efficiency Knowledge TransferNetwork (formerly Mini-Waste Faraday Partnership)[email protected]

Arnold is a project manager with 20 years’experience in the heavy industrial sectors ofmining, chemical and waste treatment withmultinational manufacturing and UKcontracting companies. He has workedoverseas on world-scale industrial plants andwith UK manufacturing sites with hazardouschemicals and effluent treatment.

Arnold is Deputy Director and TechnologyTranslator of the Mini-Waste FaradayPartnership and has extensive experience oftechnology auditing and knowledge transferfrom academia into industry. From proof-of-concept to installation and commissioningwith long-term operation experience, Arnoldis a multidiscipline team manager with goodcommercial and technical skills.

Centre for Sustainable DesignUniversity College for the Creative ArtsFaculty of DesignFalkner RoadFarnhamSurrey GU9 7DSUK

T +44 (0)1252 89 2772F +44 (0)1252 89 2747www.cfsd.org.uk

Martin Charter MBA, DipMVisiting Professor in Sustainable [email protected]

Martin is the Director and Visiting Professor inSustainable Product Design at the Centre forSustainable Design. Since 1988 he hasworked at director level in ‘business andenvironment’ issues in consultancy, leisure,publishing, training, events and research.Martin has an MBA from Aston BusinessSchool, and has interests in sustainableproduct design, green(er) marketing, andcreativity and innovation.

Martin presently directs a regional networkon ‘producer responsibility’ issues related tothe electronics sector and he is Editor of theJournal of Sustainable Product Design. He isa member of the advisory board of the CAREelectronics network, and judges on theACCA’s sustainability reporting awards andSEEDA’s Environmental Technology Taskforce.He is the author, editor and joint editor ofvarious books and publications includingManaging Eco-design (1997), SustainableSolutions (2001) and Sustainable Value (2004).

54


Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials GroupHerald Way CoventryCV3 2RQUK

T +44 (0)2476 654 557F +44 (0)2476 448 014www.rohmhaas.com

Martin Goosey BSc, PhDChief Scientist and Technology [email protected]

Dr Goosey is Chief Scientist and TechnologyFellow at Rohm and Haas Electronic MaterialsGroup’s (formerly Shipley) Europeanheadquarters in Coventry where he hasresponsibility for environmental R&D activities.

A chemist by training with a PhD inmicroelectronics reliability, Martin has over 30years’ experience in the electronics industry.Prior to joining Shipley in 1992, he worked atPlessey’s Caswell Research Laboratories.Martin also worked at the Morton ChemicalResearch Centre in Woodstock, Illinois, andimmediately before joining Shipley was aSenior Manager with the Technology MarketingDivision of the Welsh Development Agency.

Martin is a Chartered Scientist, a CharteredChemist, a Fellow of the Royal Society ofChemistry, a Fellow of the Institute ofMaterials and a Fellow of the Institute ofCircuit Technology. He is Vice Chairman of theEuropean Institute of Printed Circuits andChairman of Intellect’s Environmental WorkingGroup as well as being a member of severalkey organisations representing the interests ofthe UK printed circuit board industry.

Active Recycling LtdXavier WorksFairfield RoadSheffieldS3 8AEUK

T +44 (0)114 257 8770F +44 (0)114 257 7272www.activerecycling.com

Peter Murphy BSc, PhDManaging [email protected]

Peter has 30 years’ experience inmanufacturing. He joined the firm aged 19and worked on the shop floor learning thetrade which was a mixture of materialcomponents supply for the cutlery, agricultureand horticulture trades. Peter went on to setup a division of the company which made andsold a range of handmade knives and he wasinvited to some of the premier shows in theUK to exhibit and sell.

After trying to dispose of some personalmobile phones in an environmentally friendlyway the idea of mobile phone recycling wasconceived. Peter undertook research assistedby Environmental Business Network(Sheffield University) and found that theWEEE directive offered an excellent businessopportunity and a chance to help theenvironment. Active Recycling was formed inJuly 2000 with the express intention of beinga recycling company that could completelyrecycle a mobile phone with zero landfill.

55


Biffa Waste Services LtdCoronation RoadCressexHigh WycombeBucks HP12 3TZUK

T +44 (0)1494 486 417F +44 (0)1494 463 352www.biffa.co.uk

Phil Conran

General Manager, Recycling [email protected]

Phil began his professional life in the BritishArmy and served for nearly 10 years beforemoving to a sales role at Marconi. He thenbecame self-employed, setting up a securitydestruction and clinical waste business. In1991 he joined Biffa Waste where he isresponsible for the practical, cost-effectiveintroduction of recycling into a number ofmunicipal and commercial contracts, togetherwith development of environmental initiatives.

It is expected that Biffa will be providingcompliance services under the WEEEregulations including both administration ofthe compliance scheme and the collectionand treatment of obligated WEEE. Phil isworking on the development of the WEEEcompliance scheme, and is currently amember of the government’s AdvisoryCommittee on Packaging.

DARP Environmental LtdUniversity of ExeterInnovation CentreRennes DriveExeter DevonEX4 4RNUK

T +44 (0)1392 262 365F +44 (0)1392 262 365www.weeenetwork.com

Stuart Randall

Technical [email protected]

Stuart is a technical engineer with 27 years’experience in the industrial sectors of gasdistribution, electrical and electronicequipment repair, refurbishment, recoveryand recycling. He started his career aged 16as an apprentice with British Gas, rising toSenior Technician for nonroutine operations.

Stuart changed direction in 1994 into R&Dmanagement and has subsequently designedand developed refrigeration-recyclingprocesses and developed a novel closed-loopWEEE regulation plant. He acts as CEO forthe WEEE Recycling Network.

Stuart is currently the Technical Director andChairman of DARP Group, an internationalconsultancy specialising in recyclingtechnologies, and has extensive contacts inthe UK, Japan and Germany in the recyclingand waste management sectors.

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Axion Recycling Ltd89 Woodford RoadBramhallStockportSK7 1JRUK

T +44 (0)161 426 7731F +44 (0)161 426 7732www.axionrecycling.com

Keith Freegard MIChemE, [email protected]

Keith trained with Unilever and has an MBAfrom Cranfield University. He has heldoperational and general managementpositions in two start-up companies and hasled the development of a novel process forproduction of biodegradable packaging chipsas a replacement for expanded polystyrene.

Keith founded Axion Recycling in 2001 todevelop new projects in the waste recyclingsector. Since then, Axion has delivered aSMART-funded practical study into thepyrolysis of mixed waste plastics to producea hydrocarbon liquid fuel – ‘plasoil’ – and agreat deal of self-funded R&D of novel plasticseparation techniques. During this period thecompany has also carried out consultancywork in related systems.

DTI Global Watch ServicePeraPera Innovation ParkMelton MowbrayLeicestershireLE13 0PBUK

T +44 (0)1664 501 551F +44 (0)1664 501 261www.globalwatchservice.com/itp

David Scott BSc, PhD International Technology [email protected]

David is the DTI International TechnologyPromoter (ITP) for Japan covering Chemicals,Materials, Energy and Environment. Hisexperience includes 10 years with the OsakaGas Group in Japan and Europe coveringR&D, business development and marketanalysis. He has also worked for British Gasand on university-based R&D projects fundedby British Coal and BP. His other experienceincludes working in export management inmanufacturing and consultancy in marketingand innovation.

DTI’s global network of 22 ITPs covers arange of sectors:

• Environmental and sustainable energytechnologies

• Information technology, electronics andcommunications

• Life sciences• Performance engineering and materials

57


General background

1 How many official recycling facilities arethere in each group? Is the MatsushitaElectric METEC a ‘showcase facility’ orare others being developed? How does itdiffer from the other waste facilities?

2 What is required to get facilities approvedthrough the planning and land use laws?

3 How profitable are these recyclingfactories and what plans are there tocommercialise, develop and exportrecycling technologies? Whatsuccesses have there been in wastemarket development? For example,how many real products andbusinesses have been created?

4 How much DE-manufacturing, recyclingand then RE-manufacturing is beingcarried out?

5 Is design for active disassembly (ADSM)starting to have an impact?

6 How are you building a ‘recyclingcontent’ criterion in the general publicperception and the public procurementprogramme? To what extent are youbuilding recycled materials into products?

7 What plans does Japan have to startinfluencing other countries to movetowards a ‘closed loop’ approach, egChina? If so, how are they going to do it?

Legislative issues

8 Is there a high-level, cross-ministerialgroup coordinating strategy?

9 How are the recycling systemsassociated with HARL working?

10 What are the longer-term plans on greenprocurement, driven by the GreenPurchasing Law (GPL)?

11 Under the GPL how is Japan defining‘recycling’?

12 What monitoring techniques/technologiesare being used to detect pollutantspre/post-processing and maintaincompliance?

13 Are there any ‘standards’ for recycling? Isthere a standard definition for WEEE?When is waste a waste and when does itbecome a ‘raw material’ again?

14 What funding opportunities are there inJapan to support this activity, eithercorporate, private venture capital orgovernment schemes?

15 Do any of the recycling companies haveany input into the design stage of theprocess?

16 Are any of the recycling companiesaccredited by manufacturers or undergoany training from them?

17 What is the view on the export ofspecific electronic goods to Third-Worldcountries? Do you refurbish specificelectronic goods like mobile phones forresale, or strip to reuse components?

18 What schemes are in place to handle thecollection and logistics of transportingWEEE to reprocessing plants?

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Appendix CMISSION KEY QUESTIONS

Specific materials questions

19 What advances have been made inshredder technologies?

20 What advances have been made inphysical separations of batteries (andother toxic materials), metals (ferrous andnonferrous) and nonmetallics (plastics,ceramics, glass, rubber, etc)?

21 What activity is there in plastic andpolymer recycling? What plastic recyclingtechnology is currently being used? Whattechnology is under development?

22 What activity is there in CRT glassrecycling? What CRT glass recyclingtechnology is currently being used? Whattechnology is under development?

23 What activity is there in LCD recycling?What LCD recycling technology iscurrently being used? What technology isunder development?

24 What activity is there in precious metalrecycling? What precious metal recyclingtechnology is currently being used? Whattechnology is under development?

25 What activity is there in smart materialrecycling? What smart material recyclingtechnology is currently being used? Whattechnology is under development?

26 What activity is there in lead-free solderrecycling? What lead-free solder recyclingtechnology is currently being used? Whattechnology is under development?

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Contents

D.1 International Plastic Fair (IPF) 61

D.2 METI (Ministry of Economy, 63Trade and Industry

D.3 Mitsubishi Electric Corporation 65– Hyper Cycle Systems

D.4 Toshiba Corporate 69Manufacturing Engineering Centre

D.5 Hitachi – Production Engineering 70Research Laboratory (PERL)

D.6 Matsushita Eco Technology 74Centre Co Ltd (METEC)

D.7 Sharp – Kansai Recycling 79Systems Corporation (KRSC)

D.8 Green Cycle Corporation 82

D.9 Tokyo Eco Recycle Co Ltd 93

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Appendix DVISIT REPORTS

61


D.1 International Plastic Fair (IPF)

25 September 2005

On the Sunday preceding the mission someteam members visited Japan IPF 2005. Thiswas held at the Makuhari Messe ExhibitionCentre (Tokyo) across eight halls during 24-28September. In total some 396 exhibitorsacross 2,717 booths were listed and theywere sectioned by halls into specific areas oftechnology and manufacturing.

The mission members were interested insome key questions which were broadlycategorised as follows:

• How many companies are producing and/orsupplying recycled plastics?

• Where is the recovered material comingfrom and in what form?

• Which materials and which markets arethey supplying?

• What equipment and/or technologies are being used and where is it beingsupplied from?

• How many companies are trading partnerswithin Japan and across Asia?

• To what extent are multinationalorganisations represented?

In the time available these were challengingquestions to answer, and information wasnaturally limited to those companies themission members were able to contact.Generally speaking the replies were of anunsatisfactory nature and therefore theseissues merit more detailed investigation.

It was rapidly apparent that very fewcompanies were actually supplying recycledor recovered plastics and even fewer wereproducing them. Some companies claimed tobe in this market but actually were justoffering a ‘compounding’ service, mainly tosupply plastics of a uniform colour andquality. These companies were gaining mostof their materials from virgin redundantfeedstock such as offcuts. Off-spec materialswere also being modified (mainly in productform and colour) and offered as low-grade rawmaterials for other products.

Exhibit D.1 The mission team visit the International Plastic Fair

The team failed to find anybody offering truerecovered plastic materials from any kind ofEoL recycling operations. After the visits ofthe following week it is clear that this material,limited though it is, is finding its way into thesupply chain via a closed-loop route with theoriginal manufacturers, not the open market.

Where recycled material was being suppliedit was into similar areas as in the UK andEurope. Material substitution was the keymarket such as addition to virgin plastics anduse in low-specification ‘green products’ suchas plastic wood articles.

A vast array of equipment for plasticmanufacture was available from manyvendors, this being the bulk of the exhibitors.Broadly speaking, in the mission’s area ofinterest, the equipment comprisedconventional compounding machines,extruders and shredders. There was evidenceof the better known European machinesbeing available through Japanese and otherAsian franchises.

China was seen as a key market, and anumber of Japanese companies either hadJVs with Chinese companies and/or agencyagreements. It was clear from the exhibition,and the formal visits during the followingweek, that Japan views China as anopportunity rather than a threat. The Japaneseuse China as a cheap manufacturing facility,compared to Japan, and a market for recycledmaterials. After a two-year embargo onexporting waste plastics to China (which hadbeen seen as a dumping ground to allowJapanese companies to claim ‘recycling’targets) the market has been opened upagain. Now China is increasingly being usedas a plastic recycling centre, labour being themain cost in recovering plastic materials fromEoL products. Paradoxically China’s economicgrowth is also providing an indigenousChinese market for recovered materials anddriving material costs in Japan up.

A number of multinational companies wereexhibiting at the exhibition, the majority ofthese being based in the USA or Germany.No UK companies were found in the listingalthough some UK agency suppliers werepresent on the biggest multinational stands.

More details about the exhibition are availableon www.a-tex.co.jp/plastics

62


63


D.2 METI (Ministry of Economy,Trade

& Industry)

1-3-1 KasumigasekiChiyoda-kuTokyo 100-8901JAPAN

T +81 3 3501 1619F +81 3 3501 6942 www.meti.go.jp

Eiji YokoseDeputy DirectorInformation and Communication ElectronicsDivision

Toshiro SuzukiDeputy DirectorInformation and Communication ElectronicsDivision

Kyouhei SuwaDeputy DirectorOffice for Environmental Affairs and Recycling

Nobukuni YamaokaDeputy DirectorOffice for Environmental Affairs and Recycling

26 September 2005

The meeting opened with a presentation of abrochure Towards a 3R Oriented SustainableSociety: Legislation and Trends. This brochurewas widely mentioned during the variousmission meetings and forms most of thebackbone of this mission report. Hard copieswere kindly couriered to the UK fordistribution at the mission disseminationevent. An electronic version can be found onthe METI website as a PDF in English.

Subsequent discussions with the group ofMETI officials all from the Department ofInformation and Communication Electronicsestablished the following information.

The Ministry for the Environment isresponsible for enforcing the HARL andLPEUR regulations and the results aremonitored independently by another quasi-government organisation. These results andstatistics are published annually by METI.

Despite the self-evident success of the HARLlegislation, METI currently has no plans toextend the requirements to other appliances.These other appliances are covered byLPEUR (which does not appear to have anytargets associated with it) and are handled bylocal prefectures much the same as in theUK; some charge for disposal, some don’t.These recycling technologies are the standardcrush, shred and bulk separation of metallics.

By common consent the next items that wouldbe included in HARL would be PCs, with afocus being on B2B. Like the UK, mobilephones seem to be a special case and arerecycled by the manufacturers to recover thePMG content.

It is essentially illegal to export non-workingelectronic appliances to China but some‘illegal activity’ goes on. METI estimated thattwo million TVs and several million VCRs wereillegally exported to China via middlemen inSingapore in 2004. Spot checks are carriedout on suspicious consignments todiscourage this trade.

General public awareness of HARL and otherrecycling activity is very high, around 80%,and the government does not consider itnecessary to advertise to raise awareness.The level of recycling activity has significantlyincreased since HARL came into force,including increased recycling of non-HARLappliances. The next huge hurdle is analogueTVs when digital is enforced in 2011.

Local opposition to recycling plants is low asthey tend to be located in remote locations.(When the mission later visited various sites,they did not appear to be in ‘remotelocations’ – but that may just be down to thedefinition of rural/remote in Japan!)

Incineration of final recyclate is well acceptedand there seems less opposition in Japanthan in Europe, possibly as incinerators areseem as energy-from-waste (EfW) plants andJapan is very energy dependent.

PC recycling marking is in force as part ofLPEUR and those with markings are collectedfor free by the Post Office and delivered tothe manufacturers’ recycling plants. In thecase of unmarked products the consumerpays a fee. The idea is for a highly visible feeon new machines.

The HARL ticketing system is controlled by aquasi not-for-profit organisation called HAPA,which acts like a manufacturing tradeassociation but seems to be under theultimate control of the government. Disposalof old products in the absence of buying anew one is through the original vendor ifknown, otherwise through the ticketingsystem described in Chapter 7.

METI appears to be consulting with Japan’snear neighbours on common strategy for thePacific Rim but to date this has not reallybeen on an official basis. Likewise, dialoguewith the UK and EU has just started. This isbeing driven to some extent by EU legislationlike RoHS which is having a very big impacton Japanese manufacturers.

Further information

More details can be found at the links:

www.meti.go.jp/policy/recycle

www.env.go.jp

64


D.3 Mitsubishi Electric Corporation –

Hyper Cycle Systems

Higashihama Recycle CentreIchikawaChibaJAPAN

T +81 47 327 5860www.h-rc.co.jp www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/recycle/home

Takashi HishiPresident

Kazuyuki IimuraManager, Home Appliance Recycling GroupBusiness Development Group

Katsumi FujisakiManager, RecyclingBusiness Development Group

26 September 2005

Headline information as presented by TakashiHishi – President:

• Start of operation – 12 May 1999• Capital build cost – £26 million equivalent • Total site area – ~16,276 m2

• Total floor area – ~13,447 m2

• Transformer substation capacity –1,550 kWh

• Treatment capacity – 1,050,000 units/y ofelectric home appliances (including Kyotobranch) + 400,000 units/y of officeautomation equipment

• No treatment by water or incineration• Recycle of refrigerator insulation CFC• ISO 14001 certification – April 2001

Mitsubishi Electric supports two JVs in Japan,this one in Higashihama and one in Kyoto.

The Higashihama plant does all HARL productsexcept TVs plus some photocopiers andPCs. The Kyoto plant processes TVs as well.

This is due to logistics as Mitsubishi originallymanufactured TVs in the Kyoto region andcould reuse the recycled glass.

Mitsubishi is particularly proud that the plantwas built and commissioned before theHARL legislation came into force. It is alsokeen to promote its two new brand leaders,the ‘Uni’ and ‘Eco’ manufactured units usingthe 3R principles. The Uni (Universal) unitshave the minimum of 3R principlesembedded in them while the Eco units are‘super green’ – using 3R principles in theentire supply chain, manufacturing anddelivery system – and are sold at aconsiderable premium because of this.

Mitsubishi analyses the take-back figures ona monthly basis; there are peaks in July andAugust for fridges and air conditioning units(unsurprisingly), while TVs peak in December.Both phenomena are driven by matchedpeaks in sales of new units. This ability toanalyse take-back figures against new salesis clearly a marketing advantage for the OEMsuppliers in Japan that would be impossibleto emulate in the UK model. This analysisalso allows them to predict labourrequirements and move operators around atpeak times as the different appliance inputsare out of phase.

Mitsubishi uses a horizontal self-recyclingsystem as detailed in Exhibit D.2. As can beseen, disposal to landfill is clearly a very smallfraction. It also claims to not incinerate anyresiduals. However, this is ratherdisingenuous as energy from waste is notclassed as incineration nor when metal isrecovered from ash! In addition, plastics usedas a reluctant additive to the company’s in-house smelting group Mitsubishi Steel alsodon’t count.

However, Hyper Cycle Systems atHigashihama claims to recycle 99% pure PPand reuse all of it in new Mitsubishi products,which is significant. The high-precision plastic

65


recycling loop (Exhibit D.3) uses primary andsecondary shredding followed by dry specificgravity and electrostatic induction charging to

remove metals. The final two-stage processof electrostatic friction charging removes thePVC component.

66


Exhibit D.2 Mitsubishi Electric’s ‘horizontal self-recycling’ concept (courtesy Mitsubishi Electric)

Metal/glass Easy to recycleBig recycling marketalready exists

Home appliance products

Plastic

closed-loop only formanual dismantle

partsCreate newmarket

High-quality and high-volumesustainableclosed-looprecycle system

High-precision auto-sorting andrecycling technology

Downgrade use

Plastic products Fuel

Dispose/landfill

Plastics usedin homeappliances aremost suitablefor homeappliances

Collectvolume ownbrand

Exhibit D.3 High-precision separation of plastics at Higashihama plant (courtesy Mitsubishi Electric)

Plastics (raw material)

Preprocessingunit Milling

Size <6 mmRemoval ofdifficult to shred

[Metal removal process] [PVC removal process]

Dry specificgravity

separator

Electrostatic separator 1(induction charging)

Electrostatic separator 2(friction charging)

Plastics (not containing metal & PVC)

Plastics (containing

PVC)

Fine metalpieces

Metal

Another area of interest was the Freonrecovery unit to reclaim uncontaminated R22as shown in Exhibit D.5.

One of the collaborators, Asahi Glass, hasfurther refined the process to recycle therecovered gas into a cleaned product that canbe used in a plastics synthesis plant asshown in Exhibit D.6.

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Exhibit D.4 Recovered plastics at Higashihama plant

Exhibit D.5 Freon recovery process at Higashihama plant (courtesy Mitsubishi Electric)

Shipmentcylinder

Pump

Recovery machine

OK/NG

R22 analyser

Exhibit D.6 Processing of recovered refrigerant gas into cleaned product (courtesy Mitsubishi Electric)

Low BP-remove

High BP-remove

Dryer

Condenser

To plasticsynthesis process

EvaporatorEvaporator

Pump

These plastics plants produce Teflon typematerials that are used to coat Mitsubishiproducts such as non-stick electric fish grillsand domestic infrared ovens (Exhibit D.7).

During the plant tour it was apparent thatHyper Cycle Systems has a very integratedprocess with preliminary upstreamseparation being merged into commondownstream unit processes, which isdemonstrated by the flow sheet model inExhibit D.8. This would become a commonfeature of all the site visits.

The company’s representatives were verykeen to point out that the recyclingphilosophy is deeply embedded withinMitsubishi which has a significant ongoingcommitment to ‘design for the environment’principles in its new product design. Anexample of this policy was the fact that thereprocessing unit has a photovoltaic (PV) solarroof which generates a significant amount ofthe energy the unit uses!

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Exhibit D.7 Fluorinated plastics made from recoveredR22 (courtesy Mitsubishi Electric)

Exhibit D.8 Flow sheet of Higashihama plant (courtesy Mitsubishi Electric)

RefrigeratorDismantling

Primary crusherSecondarycrusher

CFC/HCFC

Oil

Compressor

Insulation CFC recovery unit

Air conditionerWashing machine

Television& Office automation

Dismantling

Shredder(Hammer mill)

Air separator Fe

(Smallsize)

Magneticseparator

Refrigerators (crushed chips)

+

Lod & tube mill

Polyurethane mill

Activatedcharcoalchamber

(to the air)

Fluorocarbon blowing agent


Specificgravityseparator

Airseparator

Non Fe(Al)

Non Fe(Al)

Non Fe(Cu)

Dustcollector

Fe Stainlesssteel

PlasticsPlastics DustDustPlastics Polyurethane

Poly-urethaneform airseparation

Dust collector


Cyclone


(Bigsize)

Screeningmachine

Magneticseparator

Cooler

Heater

Fe

Milling

Removingferrous

Plastic shredder

D.4 Toshiba Corporate Manufacturing

Engineering Centre

33 Sin-isogochoIsogo-ku YokohamaKanagawa 235-0017JAPAN

T +81 45 759 1300F +81 45 759 1491www.toshiba.co.jp

Takehisa Seino PhDGroup ManagerTechnology Planning & CoordinationDepartmentCorporate Manufacturing Engineering Centre

Yutaka KomuraSenior ManagerCoordinating DepartmentCorporate Manufacturing Engineering Centre

Yoshihisa HiratsukaChief SpecialistQuality ExpertCorporate Environment Management Division

Hideo SampeiChief SpecialistCustomer Satisfaction CentreCustomer Electronics Recycle PromotionOffice

Hitoshi MisakiChief SpecialistCorporate Environment Management Division

27 September 2005

Toshiba’s Corporate ManufacturingEngineering Centre is not a recyling facilityand was clearly more involved in productdevelopment R&D, albeit with a knowledgeof manufacturing for EoL recycling. The facilityhas 543 employees, 332 researchers and 81technicians and has been running since 1970.

Core technologies are semiconductors,mechanical components, manufacturinginnovation, quality control procedures,mechatronics, motor/inverter technology, andelectronic components assembly (such as‘flip chip’ and SMT liquid crystals). The facilityalso does rapid prototyping with a PCBmodelling centre, soldering school and valueengineering unit.

Due to the training element it has a strongeducational focus both for its own employeesand the general public (this seemed a strongtheme in all the sites visited by the mission).

The Centre focuses on technologicalsolutions for Toshiba’s manufacturing units.Most of the rest of the visit centred aroundone aspect of this which was its approach tothe lead-free solder problem. While ofspecific commercial interest to a number ofthe mission delegates it is not particularlyrelevant to the objectives of the mission.Consequently these highly technical detailshave been left out of this report.

Most queries on HARL and recycling werereferred to their published literature andsuggestions that we contact their partners inGroup B for more precise details. On thespecific topic of LCD recycling the hostengineers were aware that some researchhad been done in this area but most LCDmaterials were recycled to secondaryaggregate and road surfacing applications.

Clearly Toshiba is active in the area ofrecycling but not at this site, and theassembled people from the EnvironmentalManagement Division were only involvedperipherally. Pre-mission intelligence from UKdelegates indicates that Toshiba is alreadydoing very sensitive confidential R&D intoactive disassembly and possibly did not wantto speak about it in an open forum.

69


D.5 Hitachi – Production Engineering

Research Laboratory (PERL)

292 Yoshida-choTotsuka-kuYokohama 244-0817JAPAN

T +81 45 860 2338F +81 45 860 1629www.hqrd.hitachi.co.jp/perle

Dr Fumikazu ItohGeneral Manager

Dr Toshijiro OhashiChief Researcher

Mr Masahide OkamotoSenior ResearcherPackaging Technology Solutions Department

Mr Mitsuhiro EnomotoManagerManufacturing System 2nd Department

27 September 2005

Following introductions and exchanges ofbusiness cards, the mission team was given ashort presentation by Dr Itoh on the overviewof Hitachi Corporation and the breakdown ofHitachi R&D in Japan and overseas (seewww.hitachi.com/about/corporate/organizationand www.hqrd.hitachi.co.jp/global/organization.cfm).

The Production Engineering ResearchLaboratory (PERL) was established in 1971 inTotsuka-ku in Yokohama and employs 314 staff.Milestones for PERL include a fully automatedassembly line for tape recorders, producing100,000 sets per month in 1980, and winningthe Ohkouchi prize – recognised as the mostprestigious award for production engineeringand technology in Japan. PERL has also wonother awards: 1990-1995 for the developmentof large-scale computers, and 2001 formanufacturing innovation in the PC industry.

Developments now concentrate on thecollaboration between design andmanufacture. The mission was shownevidence of EoL now being factored intothese equations, all part of the Japanese‘Monozukuri’ (the art of making things). Thebasic philosophy is based on the Hitachi LtdStandards of Corporate Conduct (establishedin June 1983). These are intended to setHitachi’s action guidelines for addressingenvironmental conservation in relation to itsbusiness activities, and are a major influenceat PERL which is responsible for evaluatingchemical substances used in products andthe total management system for a ‘recyclingbased society’.

Lead-free soldering technology

The mission was given an insight into PERL’swork on lead-free soldering by Mr MasahideOkamoto. He explained the Hitachi timeframefor the application of lead-free solder:

• 1983 – Hitachi started research into lead-free soldering

• 1999 – lead-free soldering introduced intoHitachi laptops and phased in throughouttheir product lines

• 2002 – all industrial equipment andproducts of all affiliated companies werelead-free

Lead-free solder paste has a higher meltingpoint (260 oC) than conventional Sn-Pb solderpaste (240 oC). Problems occurring during thewave soldering process, such as fillet lifting andcavities caused by shrinkage, were overcomeby rapidly cooling the underside of the PCB.

Mr Okamoto explained the IMS (IntelligentManufacturing Systems) project EFSOT(Environment-Friendly SOldering Technology) –a joint project between Japan, Europe andKorea (Exhibit D.9) – and the timeframesinvolved (Exhibit D.10).

70


The objective of the EFSOT project was todevelop a set of new technologies and adatabase that would enable selection of anoptimum solution for a given application andproduct by identifying such characteristics assolderability, joint reliability, toxicity and –most importantly – the environmental impact

of possible combinations of lead-free soldersincluding those used to metallise the parts tobe soldered prior to actual soldering.

EFSOT was funded (€10 million) by the ECwithin the FP5 Growth Programme under thecontract number G1RD-CT-2002-00838.

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Exhibit D.9 Participants in the EFSOT project

Exhibit D.10 EFSOT project schedule (source: www.pb.izm.fhg.de/ee/addon/EFSOT_Presentation.pdf)

JAPAN EUROPE KOREA

HitachiFuijstuNECOKI Electric IndustryAIST RC for LCAHokkaido IRIHokkaido UniversityJuntendo UniversityNIESOsaka University – Department ofManufacturing ScienceOsaka University – CRCASTShizuoka UniversityTohoku UniversityUniversity of Tokyo

TU Berlin (RCP), GermanyAB Mikroelektronik, AustriaGaiker, SpainIndumetal Recycling, SpainPhilips, NetherlandsPre Consultants, NetherlandsAvantec (Promosol), FranceThomson, France

LG Electronics (RCP)ECOJOINJaeneung CollegeKITECH

EFSOT – SCHEDULE

Endorsement of IMS abstract proposal andpreparation of full proposal

IMS proposalmust be endorsed

DomesticIMS EFSOTproject inJapan

EFSOTcontinues inJapan

EFSOT proposalendorsed in Korea

EFSOT startsin Korea

EFSOT proposalsubmitted to EU

EFSOT negotiationstarts in EU

ProspectiveEFSOT startin EU

ProspectiveEFSOT endin EU

Apr2000

Jul2001

Sep2001 Nov/Dec

2001

Jan 2002 Sep 2002

Dec 2002

Jun 2005

Environmentally benign manufacturing

To promote environmental initiatives, HitachiGroup has built an environmentalmanagement system for consolidatedreporting. Hitachi’s Senior ExecutiveCommittee for Environmental Policy, amanagerial level committee chaired by thePresident, assesses and determines theenvironmental policies and strategies for theentire Hitachi Group.

The environmental policies adopted aredelegated to the Environmental ManagementOperations Committee to be implementedand communicated throughout theorganisation. The Environmental Committee(and subcommittees) works to attainenvironmental goals and tasks by conductinginvestigations and developing usefulevaluation methodologies and techniques.

It also establishes the organisations required forimplementing environmental activities in eachbusiness, and designates environmentaloperations officers within Hitachi’s businessgroups, subsidiaries and affiliated companieswho are responsible for managingenvironmental matters within each organisation.

Both within Japan and overseas the HitachiGroup shares information about laws,regulations, market trends, and reports onrelevant topics. From 2005 it has also beenworking to upgrade its environmentalmanagement system in its facilities in Europeand China to promote the sharing ofinformation and enhancement of environmentalactivities within the Group in each location, andplans to implement the same measures in theUSA and other locations.

For its part in this, PERL was responsible fordesigning environmental tools and systemsas part of Hitachi’s ECP (EnvironmentallyConscious Product) objective. Otherresponsibilities included developing lead-freesoldering technologies and chemical

substances management systems, in partdue to EU RoHS legislation, and amanagement system for ‘circulatingmaterials’ in preparation for Japanese andEuropean reuse and recycling laws.

Recyclability Evaluation Method and itsapplication

In 1999 Hitachi introduced a system oflabelling products with environmental impactinformation. Under this system, products soldin Japan had an environmental rating as wellas pertinent environmental data. The newsystem first appeared on PCs launched inDecember of that year.

In 1994 Hitachi drew up a set of standards forassessing products in terms of decreaseduse of resources, recyclability and ease ofdisassembly. In the same year, the companydeveloped and implemented Life CycleAssessment (LCA), DisassemblabilityEvaluation Method (DEM) and RecyclabilityEvaluation Method (REM). As of April 1999,these design tools had been used to developa total of 62 ‘green’ products.

For the new system, products will beevaluated based on a set of criteria forassessing product design in terms ofenvironmental compatibility. A product thatreceives a high assessment score will carry aspecial mark and relevant environmental data.

The mission was given a short explanation ofREM by Dr Toshijiro Ohashi, who said thequantitative attributes of REM are recycleexpense index, estimated value, estimatedrecyclability rate, recyclability/disassemblabilityevaluation score, etc. The goal is to providedesigners with a tool to compare recyclabilityof various design options. The user inputs partname, material and mass, and symbols whichindicate the required disassembly operation.There are some 20 types of disassemblyoperation elements, categorised bymovement, tool operations, etc.

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Examples include upward movement, screwrotation and cutting. Model output includesestimated disassembly time and totalrecycling expense. The system has now beenincorporated with CAD software, so giving aschematic view for disassembly lines.

It appeared that REM was of little use toprocessing plants in Japan as the plants wereprocessing only limited product lines made bythe parent manufacturer.

REM is offered to contracted users athttp://ecoassist.omika.hitachi.co.jp.

Summary

Hitachi has worked in several different areasof environmentally benign manufacturing,including lead-free soldering, evaluationmethods for recycling, inverse manufacturing,and recycling information exchange systems.It has clearly articulated a policy to pursueenvironmentally conscious design andmanufacturing in a variety of areas, andquantified specific goals and target dates.

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D.6 Matsushita Eco Technology Centre

Co Ltd (METEC)

50 DahoYashiro-choKato-gunHyogo 673-1447JAPAN

T + 81 795 42 8570F + 81 795 42 8580www.panasonic.co.jp/eco/en/metec

Nobutaka TsutsumiPresident (plant tour guide)

Tokuhiro HirakiTeam LeaderPlanning Team

Ko FukudaDirectorRecycling Business Promotion Office

Hirotoshi TakeuchiCouncillorEnvironmental Auditing Office

Tatenobu AraiManagerEnvironmental Protection

Yutaka HorinouchiDirectorGeneral Manager

28 September 2005

After an introduction and welcome by KoFukuda, a DVD presentation was given aboutMatsushita’s commitment to the environmentand the METEC facility itself. The facilityopened in April 2001 on a site already ownedby Matsushita and its cost was given as ¥5 billion (~£25 million). It had the capabilityto process one million units per year. The areain which it was built was famous for growingrice used in saki production.

Matsushita was committed to thedevelopment of green products, as well as torecycling research and technology. It was fullyaligned with the need to reduce, reuse andrecycle (the 3Rs) and to coexist within theglobal environment.

The plant had been commissioned to coincidewith the implementation of HARL andMatsushita had established specific productrecovery points throughout Japan. The plantwas processing the four types of electricalgoods specified in HARL – air conditioners,washing machines, televisions and refrigerators.

In addition to the actual disassembly lines in theplant, there was also an education centre wherethe public – particularly school children – had theopportunity to visit the facility to learn moreabout Matsushita’s recycling activities and theneed to recycle more EoL products. Forexample, the education facility showed andcontrasted the material and component contentof a TV made 20 years ago with one madetoday: the reduction in the number of individualcomponents and materials was significant.

The plant had been built in such a way that itdid not look like a recycling plant from theoutside. Special attention had also been paidto the design in order to reduce noiseemission from the plant: it had beensoundproofed and anti-vibration mountingshad been used on the equipment. Dust anddirt was collected and cleaned or incinerated.

The aim was to make the plant as open tothe community and general public aspossible. METEC also participated in anEnvironmental Council meeting with localresidents every three months.

The recycling processes used in the facilitywere basically the same as might beencountered in other plants but thecleanliness of the whole facility clearlydistinguished it as a showcase recyclingcentre, especially when compared to theother plants visited during the mission.

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There appeared to be a large amount ofmanual work undertaken in the plant andthere were a large number of staff workingon the dismantling lines.

The overall process flow in the plant was asshown in Exhibit D.11.

Receiving

Disassembly

Shredding

Sorting

Despatch

Exhibit D.11 Process flow at METEC

The key part of the whole process was theshredding operation and it appeared thatsome considerable thought had been given tothe design and type of shredder used for

each specific product. The shredders weresurrounded by noise barriers and air wasfiltered before leaving the enclosures.

Following the introduction and DVDpresentation the mission team visited thetraining centre, where more details were givenregarding the recycling of the four types ofproducts handled by the plant. The educationcentre had examples of the types of materialsthat were recycled at the plant, and theapproximate material compositions for eachtype of product are shown in Exhibit D.12.

The recycling rates achieved by METEC weregiven – they are well in excess of theamounts required by HARL (Exhibit D.13).

Details were then given of the recycling ofthe four different products defined by the law.

The first one discussed was televisions and,as can be seen from Exhibit D.12, by far thebiggest proportion of material in a TV is glass.It was stated that CRT glass could berecovered with 99.7% purity and that therecovered glass was used to make newCRTs. The quantity of glass in a typical CRTwas said to be equivalent to the quantityneeded to make 68 drinking glasses.

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Exhibit D.12 Approximate percentage by weight of material found in the four products defined by HARL

Exhibit D.13 Percentage by weight of recycling required by HARL and actually achieved by METEC

Television Washing machine Air conditioner Refrigerator

Glass 57 - - -

Plastic 23 36 11 40

Iron 10 53 55 50

Copper 3 4 17 4

Aluminium 2 3 7 3

Other 5 4 10 3

Television Washing machine Air conditioner Refrigerator

Required by HARL 55 50 60 50

Achieved by METEC 70-80 65-70 75-85 65-75

Because the glass in a CRT varies incomposition between the panel and thefunnel (the funnel glass containing lead forexample), it was critical that the CRT be splitinto two parts at exactly the right place forrecycling. Matsushita had developed a specialcutting machine that used an optical systemto ensure that the CRT was divided at thedesired place. In this process the CRT initiallyhad a groove ground around its circumferenceat the point where it was to be split. A heatedwire tape was than wrapped around the CRTand a current was applied which caused thetape and thus the CRT to heat up locally inthe region of the groove. On cooling, thedifferential contraction of the two types ofglass on either side of the groove caused theCRT to crack into two, giving the panel andfunnel portions. After cleaning, the glass wassent for recycling. However, it wasinteresting to note that the CRT phosphorswere simply removed by suction and thendestroyed by pyrolysis.

The material composition given (Exhibit D.12)for a typical washing machine showed that itwas more than 50% iron and 36% plastic. Thepolymer was mainly PP and this could beobtained in a relatively pure form, via densityseparation, to give a polymer with goodenough quality for use in washing machinebase panel mouldings. It was stated that saltwater was used as ballast rather than concretein many Japanese washing machines, themajority being top loading machines.

Refrigerators were also typically more than50% iron and 40% plastic. One of the keychallenges with refrigerators (and with airconditioners) was the presence of CFCswhich had to be removed and collected sothat they could subsequently be destroyed orconverted into materials suitable for use inthe manufacture of fluoropolymers. Inaddition to the removal of CFCs from thecooling system, they were also removed fromthe polyurethane foam insulation. The oil inthe compressors contained dissolved CFCs

and these were removed by bubbling gasthrough the oil. METEC had also beenworking in a project with the University ofOsaka to develop new methods for removingCFCs from various materials.

Plastic from refrigerators was recycled intonew fridge components such as bottominsect covers and the compressor oil wassent to an oil recycling company where it wasconverted into new lower-grade oil.Compressors were mechanically split toenable aluminium, copper and iron to berecovered. It was also stated that fridgecompressors were treated differently to airconditioning compressors. METEC haddeveloped (with Japanese governmentfunding) a new shredder technology in 1998specifically for compressors and this operatedat room temperature. Recovered metals werepressed into compacted blocks that weresent to a refiner. CFCs were also removedfrom air conditioner units and each individualtype of CFC was separately collected. Themost common refrigerant gas was R22; thequantities of R502 and R134 encounteredwere small and decreasing. METEC isshredding 80,000 fridges each year.

A water-based centrifugal separationtechnology was being used to separateindividual components in a mixed plasticwaste stream. Specifically, PS with its higherdensity could be separated from PP. The unitused at METEC had a 500 kg/h capacity.

Different types of shredders were used forspecific items, for example a vertical spinningshredder was used for refrigerators while atwo axis, twin-shaft wheel shredder wasused for washing machines. The washingmachine shredder was supplied by Kubotaand the fridge shredder by Kinki(www.kinkikogyo.co.jp).

The facility also had a development area thatwas used for company internal R&D andtraining work. Examples of a range of

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recovered materials were shown and thesewere given red or green labels depending onwhether or not they could be sold. Work wascarried out on materials that couldn’t be soldto upgrade them. The Japanese governmenthad funded a project to add value to CRTglass. This project had been successful andthe technology had subsequently beendeployed around Japan.

Design engineers are trained at thedevelopment facility to make sure that theyunderstand dismantling and recycling. Thefacility used formal training tools and it alsohad small compact shredders that were usedfor evaluations on new products. There was alot of information in the facility about lead-freeassembly and soldering. METEC had alsoproduced a book called HazardousSubstances Non-use Techno School Book andit was printed in both Japanese and English.

METEC is increasingly thinking about futureproducts and gave the example of a newfridge design which they would dismantlenow, so that they would already understandhow to handle it at EoL.

Work was also being carried out in theexperimental laboratory on the treatment ofoxidised solder (solder dross). Sesame seedswere being used to reduce the oxidisedsolder back to metals.

A presentation was given on HARL. This law,which came into force in 2001, established asocially acceptable recycling scheme thataimed to minimise recycling costs and whichhad convenient logistics. The system that hadevolved was characterised by cooperationbetween local recyclers using their existinginfrastructure and a decentralised recyclingnetwork. Although the law covered TVs, therewas no obligation to process CRT-basedmonitors from PCs; they were veryoccasionally processed at the plant but theywere typically handled elsewhere.

It was asked if HARL covered non-CRT basedTVs, ie LCD. These were not currentlyincluded in the law, but it was likely that theywould be added in the future.

Overall this was a very interesting visit towhat was clearly a showcase demonstrationfacility. The actual equipment used in theprocessing of the four types of EoL productswas not particularly novel and was similar tothat seen at other plants visited. Some workhad clearly been done to optimise shredderperformance for the most appropriate type ofdesign to be applied to each product. Themain feature of this plant was not so muchthe technology but the fact that it wasrunning efficiently as part of an effectiveintegrated process that began with theconsumer and ended with the recycler. Thewhole mechanism had been initiated byHARL and it was clear that, despite thecharging of fees for recycling EoL appliances,the Japanese public were willing to play theirpart in making the process work. It is difficultto imagine a similar process being sosuccessful in the UK for numerous reasonsincluding cultural ones.

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Exhibit D.14 Storage and stillage at METEC

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Exhibit D.15 Disassembly at METEC

Exhibit D.16 Air conditioner disassembly at METEC

D.7 Sharp – Kansai Recycling Systems

Corporation (KRSC)

22-22 Nagaike-choAbeno-kuOsakaJAPAN

T +81 72 808 9888F +81 72 808 9889www.sharp-world.com www.krsc.co.jp

From Sharp Corporation (Head Office Team):

Mr Minoru TaniguchiDeputy General ManagerEnvironmental Protection Group (EPG)

Mr Kuni YonedaGeneral ManagerEnvironmental Planning Department EPG

Mr Yoshitake Sumida Department General ManagerEnvironmental Technology Group

Mr Yoshinori TatsumiChief Recycling AdvisorEPG

Mr Yohei KawaguchiEnvironmental Technology Development DeptEPG(Plastics Technologist)

Mr Shinichiro NakatsukaEPG

From KRSC:

Mr Koji YoshinoPresident, Kansai Recycling Plant(plant manager for the recycling operation)

29 September 2005

The KRSC plant is located in the Osakaregion. It was established in December 1999and began operation in April 2001. It is a JVbetween Sharp Corporation and MitsubishiMaterials Corporation. The plant handles thefour products covered by HARL for theregions of Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Wakayama.Key facts about the site are:

• Capacity – 790,000 units/y• Visitors – 1,200/y• Capital investment – ¥300 million

(~£1.5 million)• Site area – 8,680 m2

• Building – 2,850 m2 (total floor area – 5,310 m2)

• Labour – 150 people

The Company President gave an initial talkoutlining Sharp’s commitment to theenvironment.

This was followed by two presentations – onefrom the Plant Manager (Mr Yoshino) and onefrom the Plastics Technologist (Mr Kawaguchi).

Sharp’s environmental policy focuses on:

• Resources reuse and recycling• Global warming – CO2 emissions etc• Control of hazardous materials – RoHS

Readers seeking more detail on the ‘companycorporate responsibility’ story are referred toSharp’s annual Environmental and SocialReport9. This has sections on: green logistics;developing green technologies; super greenproducts, both in-use and material content;super green factories with zero waste andnear-zero emissions; reducing use ofhazardous chemicals; etc.

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9 www.sharp-world.com/corporate/eco/report/index.html

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The following summary of the operation isbased upon the presentations and theobservations of the mission team during thefactory tour.

In the limited time available, the PlantManager concentrated upon the following:

1 Freon gas removal and monitoringsystem – A semiautomated system hasbeen implemented to ensure that allrefrigerant gases collected from airconditioning and fridge equipment iscorrectly recorded and stored in separatetransport containers. Each individual unitis bar-coded into the gas-removal sectionand the model and serial number used toascertain the type of Freon gas used(often this is also clearly marked on thecompressor/gas system).

During gas removal the weight of the unitis monitored and gas extraction can onlybe stopped once there is no furtherdetected drop in mass. A system ofwarning/signal lamps is used to informthe process operator when it is safe tounhook the gas extract clamp from eachitem. Much effort was given to separatestorage of the different gas types – whichwas explained as being needed to satisfy‘gas storage’ laws, but this seemsunnecessary if all hydrochlorofluorocarbon(HCFC) gases are being sent for thermaldestruction.

2 Plant inventory and material flowcontrol system – Explanation was givenof the information technology (IT) systemthat records the data from each unitentering the plant and links this to themass flows of material leaving thefactory. Real-time stock control and work-in-process (WIP) monitoring wasincluded. There appeared to be nothingnovel here, other than all incoming unitswere seen to be clearly marked with theconsumer’s shipping ticket which formed

the key to the whole system, evenallowing individual trace-back by item forthe original disposer.

3 Plastic recycling – There was briefmention of the plastic from washingmachine tubs being recycled since 2001back into new parts for Sharp washingmachines. TV cases and fridge base platesetc are being sent for recycling into otherlow-grade goods; this is thought to be dueto the high incidence of brominated flame-retardant additives (see following visitreport on Green Cycle Corporation).

4 Plant flow sheet – A block flow diagramof the main unit operations carried out inthe plant (Exhibit D.17) shows the initialmanual disassembly operation on fourlines dedicated to each product, withremoval of large items (eg CRTs, motors,big plastic parts) and Freon gasextraction. CRTs are sent for processingat a remote site after removal of copperyoke and X-ray gun. Sticky tape is usedto prevent escape of phosphor powders.

After the manual strip-down of the unitsis complete, the material is sent forshredding in a soundproof, enclosedroom. The fridge and washing machinehousings are sent to two similarshredders (vertical shaft design, made byKyboto). These units incorporate twoshredding regions: the first gives ahammer-mill effect using breaker barsand stators; smaller pieces then fall intoan annulus gap between the rotor andthe shredder wall to undergo further sizereduction down to about 10-25 mm. Thisdesign has the advantage of allowingcontinuous operation, with gravity infeedand output of materials. Sharp providedtechnical data on this unit together withinformation on the lifetime of the primarywear parts (330,000 units processed ineight months between replacement ofbreaker-bar and stator plates).

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The fridge-body shredder feeds the metal,plastic and urethane-foam mixture to an airblower that removes the lighter insulationfoam waste. This material is sent forthermal destruction following compressionin an extruder to form pellets.

Magnetic and eddy-current separatorsare then used to reclaim the metalfractions, and the remaining mixed plasticwaste is sent for external recycling. Themixed plastic has been sent for thermalrecovery at incineration plants, but thismay be linked to mention of a lawbanning export of waste to China for thelast 18 months.

During questioning Mr Yoshino quoted thefollowing figures for dismantling labour acrosseach of the appliances:

The plant handles 3,600 units daily with astaff of 85 people on a 12-hour shift pattern.The average time to dismantle each unit is as follows:

• Television – 9 minutes• Fridge – 12 minutes• Air conditioner – 24 minutes

(more Freon to extract)

Exhibit D.17 Processing flow of KRSC appliance recycling plant (courtesy KRSC)

CRT tubes

PCBs

Plastic

Wood

Freon(insulation material)

Polyurethane

Coolant Freon

Compressors

Heat exchangers

Iron

Non-iron

Mixed plastics

PP plastic

Motor

Stainless steel

Salt water

Recovery by hand tools




CRUSHER

✸✸

CRUSHER

✸

VERTICALCRUSHER

VERTICALCRUSHER

SORTING

SORTING

Urethanemouldingmachine

Recover Freon(insulation)

Recover Freon(insulation)

Coolant Freon

PRESS

CRT

PCBs

Cabinets

Compressors

Heat exchangers

Water tanks, plastic cabinets

Motor

Stainless steel tank

Salt water

Recovered materials

TVs

Refrigerators

Airconditioners

Washingmachines

D.8 Green Cycle Corporation

Minato-kuNagoyaAichiJAPAN

T +81 52 613 5701F +81 52 613 5703www.greenc.co.jp

Mr Toshimi Saito President and Representative Director

Mr Takeshi Tokita Business Promotion Section, Sony

Mr Nobuhiro Hori General Manager

29 September 2005

Green Cycle Corporation is a subsidiary of SonyElectronics and is known as a Sony familycompany. It is located approximately two hoursfrom Tokyo in Nagoya city (Exhibit D.18).

There are sixteen shareholders in the plantranging from Sharp, Fujitsu and Sanyothrough to companies which are relativelyunfamiliar in the UK such as Sekisui ChemicalCo Ltd and Nihon Cullet Co Ltd.

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Exhibit D.18 Location of Green Cycle Corporation

Key facts about the site are:

• Established – 28 July 1998 (operation started 24 October 2000)

• Capacity – 850,000 units/y• Capital investment – ¥350 million

(£1.7 million) as of November 2002• Employees – 130 (as of November 2002)• Site area – 23,185 m2

• Facility area – 4,689 m2

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Exhibit D.20 Process flow at Green Cycle plant (courtesy Green Cycle Corp)

Exhibit D.19 Green Cycle Corporation (Sony) facility

The mission arrived at the plant to be met byMr Saito, Mr Hori and Mr Tokita and shown toa conference area to be given a shortpresentation on the ethos of Sony and theGreen Cycle Corporation which may besummarised as follows:

• Efficient plant with the simplest layout • High recycling ratio of 98% or more of

CRT glass• High recovery of 93% or more for adiabatic

CFC and cyclopentane• Aiming at high plastics recycling ratio by

the introduction of a plastics separator• High recycling ratio of 80% or more by

using wet-type separator plant with noiseand dust proofing

The visitors were shown round by Mr Tokitaand taken to a viewing platform where theywere able to see television and air conditionerdisassembly lines.

They were also told of the recording of datacollected from the redundant units that aresent to the plant. These data were evident on all equipment that was entering the plantas a sticker (ticket) was attached to everyitem collected (see Chapter 7 for details ofthis system).

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Exhibit D.21 TV disassembly at Green Cycle plant: fine particle countermeasures and waste collection sorting(courtesy Green Cycle Corp)

Television recycling

This semiautomated plant is fed by fork-lifttrucks depositing units onto a roller conveyorfeeding differing work stations. The variousstages of disassembly are:

1 The units are checked into the system byscanning in the bar code on the returnticket attached to the unit.

2 Differing components are manuallystripped from the unit: first the externalpower supply and then the deflection yoke,speaker, degaussing coil, PCB and cabinet.All are separated into discrete bins.

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Exhibit D.23 Television disassembly at Green Cycle plant

Exhibit D.22 Laptop disassembly at Green Cycle plant

3 There does not appear to be any check on whether the plastic is flame retardantor not and so it is assumed that it ismixed, as it is put in for shredding with allother plastics.

4 The neck of the CRT to which the gun isattached is removed by angle grinder;there was no evidence of water beingadded to the inside of the tube at thispoint as had been seen at the Hitachiplant visited earlier in the week. Heretape was put over the opening to stop thephosphor escaping.

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Exhibit D.24 CRT treatment process at Green Cycle plant (courtesy Green Cycle Corp)

Exhibit D.25 TV/computer screens undergoingtreatment at Green Cycle plant

5 The CRT is then sent down the line andcleaned of most of the carbon grime it hasaccumulated over its lifetime in use. This isaccomplished by use of a small hand-heldangle grinder fitted with an abrasive mop.

6 After thorough cleaning the whole CRT isplaced (not thrown!) into a cage and eachlayer covered by thick sheeting.

This was the first time the mission team hadseen such care being taken with CRTs. Bytiming the process it was found that eachoperator took a full three minutes to cleanone unit.

Air conditioner recycling

The largest volume of any of the recycleditems was the air conditioner units. With theclimate in Japan these are used in virtuallyevery home and so tend to be more inevidence than other equipment.

The units arrive from the extensivestockyards where they are stored and aredeposited by fork-lift truck onto a poweredconveyor system. Then they are dealt withmanually as the self-propelled conveyorsystem gives way to a roller system asillustrated in Exhibit D.26.

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Exhibit D.26 Conveyor system with air conditioners ready for processing at Green Cycle plant (arrow indicatesrollers necessitating manual intervention to enable movement of units)

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Exhibit D.28 Collecting fluorocarbon refrigerant at Green Cycle plant (courtesy Green Cycle Corp)

Exhibit D.27 Processing of air conditioners at Green Cycle plant (arrows indicate removal of Freon gas)

The process is as follows:

1 First, as with all recycled equipment, thebar code is scanned on the return ticket sothe particular unit is recorded as havingbeen received for recycling.

2 The units then undergo depollution asillustrated in Exhibit D.27 to remove allCFCs, namely Freon gas which is stored incontainers. This is regulated by anoperative who monitors the amount takenfrom each unit and ensures that each unitis empty before disconnection. The gas isthen sent for incineration as it cannot beused for any other purpose.

3 The power cord is severed and placed in a bin.

4 The outer case is detached using air-powered screwdrivers.

5 At the same station the outer case isseparated into metal and plastic grill. This isnormally achieved by prising the two apartwith a large hand-held screwdriver! Thecomponents are then placed into differingbins appropriate to their composition(metal/plastic). This was the norm at allplants visited.

6 Once the unit is exposed, the piping, heatexchanger, condenser and compressor areremoved and placed into their respectivebins, being sent off site for furthertreatment.

7 Other plastic components, such as theplastic drum, are separated on site.

All of the metal components (other than heatexchanger, condenser and compressor) aretaken directly to bins to be processed off site.

The remaining material is dealt with on site inthe two spindle horizontal crushers, the plasticsbeing sent to the dedicated crusher on site.

Washing machine recycling

The next line shown to the mission was thewashing machine disassembly process. Thiswas by far the dirtiest recycling process of alland was similar at all facilities visited.

In Japan most washing machines are toploading not front loading as in the UK (ExhibitD.29). Also it would seem that the majority ofdrums are plastic instead of stainless steel.

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Exhibit D.29 Comparison of typical UK and Japanese washing machines: (a) UK model – front loading; (b) Japanese models – top loading

The disassembly process is as follows:

1 The units arrive as all recycled unitspreviously described and have the plasticlids removed from the top of the unit.

2 Then the waste pipe is removed and anyexternal fixings from the bottom of the unit.

3 The unit is then turned over manually andthe washing drum is detached by using anair chisel.

4 The drum is then separated from themotor. At Green Cycle this is done in eitherof two ways. One method is by air chiselto sever the fixing bolts but we were alsoshown a ‘separating booth’ in which thedrum could be placed into a jig and a sawblade used to cut though the fixingsautomatically. This was not in use at thetime but was obviously used in ‘campaignstyle’. The problem with this particularrecycling method is waste water but wewere told that all waste water is treatedbefore release.

5 The drum and motor plus any fixings beingremoved, the drum is then sent to thededicated plastics crusher if it is plastic (in most cases it is) or, if metal, the normal procedure is to crush it under ahydraulic press to reduce the volume forfurther processing.

Fridge recycling

The next line was the fridge section. Theprocess is as follows:

1 The fridges arrive, as with all otherequipment, but with the difference thatspecial air suction lifting equipment isemployed to lift and orientate the units.

2 The unit’s bar code is recorded from thereturn ticket.

3 The unit is stripped internally of all loosedrawers and shelves.

4 The outside magnetic strip surrounding thedoor is removed.

5 The compressor is removed and drained of oil(the oil is apparently commonly of vegetableorigin and is sent for separate recovery).

6 This unit is then sent directly to a verticalshredder.

7 Certain fridges/freezers have a heat shieldon the back which is aluminium and has tobe manually removed. This is undertakenby using a large bar (Exhibit D.30) beforebeing sent to the vertical shredder.

Conclusions

• Plastics

Plastics were seen to be fractionated andsubjected to a washing process although theydid not appear to be of any greater valuevisually than those seen at other plants ascan be seen from Exhibit D.31. Thisfractionated plastic is roughly 10 mm in size.

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Exhibit D.30 Manual removal of aluminium heat shieldfrom back of fridge/freezer at GreenCycle plant

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• Facility

The facility itself was obviously not purpose builtand was probably an old fabrication shop as thearea around it was of old ‘heavy industry’ origin.The stockyard was very large and appeared tobe very pleasant to work in with plants andshrubs in evidence. This was a common featureof site visits and goes to show how the workersare not forgotten but made to feel fortunate towork in such an environment.

• Shredder/crusher technology

The equipment seen at the Green Cyclefacility was two spindle crushers which dealtwith all metal waste. After being roughlycrushed in the two spindle crushers it is finelycrushed in a vertical crusher. Although fridgesare fed directly into the vertical crusher thereis a dedicated plastics crusher.

• CRTs

The form of recycling for this type of itemvaried from plant to plant but it was noted thatGreen Cycle went to greater lengths to achievea much cleaner end product. They claim tohave had the ‘World’s First TV Cathode TubeRecycling System’. From looking at theinformation in a brochure this system wouldseem to be fully automated but unfortunately it

was not located on the site visited. One of theGreen Cycle stakeholders is Nihon Cullet CoLtd so it follows that they would need tomaximise the facility to receive good qualityglass for recycling.

One point they were happy to tell the missionwas that they did export in the region of10,000 old television units to China each year.

• Air conditioners

The air conditioner units the mission saw atthis plant seemed to be treated in much thesame way as elsewhere and the samedisassembly systems were used.

• Washing machines

The difference in how Green Cycle and otherrecyclers treat washing machines is themanner in which the motor and fixings areremoved: Green Cycle uses a semiautomaticcutter while others use semiautomatic pullers.

• Fridges

All of the facilities visited were treating thefridge in much the same way and seemed tobe very proficient at doing so; the one majorproblem component for recycling was themagnetic sealing strip on the door.

• Workforce

It has to be said that the workforce in every company visited was very wellorganised and extremely well motivated;Green Cycle was however the only companyto hire in its workforce on a short-term basis,meaning that they were presumably all ontemporary contracts.

• PCBs

The Green Cycle plant was the only facilityvisited by the mission to actually shred circuitboards on site. This may be due to the fact

Exhibit D.31 Fractionated plastic at Green Cycle plant

that they have shareholders in the facility todeal with the recovery of precious metalswithin the group.

Further information

For a more detailed overview of thecompany’s environmental policies pleaserefer to the following links:

www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Environment/environment/management/vision/index.html

www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Environment/environment/communication/report/1997/qfhh7c000000dub5-att/e_1997_03.pdf

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D.9 Tokyo Eco Recycle Co Ltd

Wakasu 38Koutou-kuTokyo 136-0083JAPAN

T +81 3 3522 6690F +81 3 3522 6688www.tokyo-eco.co.jp

Dr Kenji Baba President and CEO

Mr Motto Uno General ManagerDepartment of Environmental Business and Technology

30 September 2005

Tokyo Eco Recycle Co Ltd was established in1999 as a corporate response to HARL. In2004 its rate of recycling for four consumerelectronic goods of commercial value(televisions, refrigerators, washing machinesand air conditioners) exceeded thegovernment standards by a wide margin, andthe company achieved zero emissions tolandfill for the third consecutive year.

In 2005 the company won the ninth HondaPrize for Recycling Technology Development,for achieving zero emissions in the householdelectrical appliance recycling division.

HARL was enacted with the goal ofencouraging the efficient use of resources.Tokyo Eco Recycle handles about one-quarterof the volume of the four categories of itemscovered under the Law. The company handlesabout 300,000 items per year in Tokyo, and in2003 sent only 0.1% of the total to landfill,meaning that in effect it achieved ‘zeroemissions’ of waste.

The site is located at nearby Wakasu Park andcampsite, popular with Tokyo residents, andwas therefore subject to strict noise,vibration, odour and dust emission controls.Takenaka (the corporation responsible fordesign and construction) was responsible fornegotiations with various governmentagencies and advisory councils with regard tospecific laws and regulations.

The Hitachi process was applied to five plantsin Japan. Hitachi founded three newcompanies for recycling home electricappliances in Hokkaido, Tokyo and Tochigibased on this process.

President and CEO Dr Kenji Baba introducedthe mission to Tokyo Eco Recycle. He startedby explaining the origins of HARL and LPEUR,stemming from the 1994 Basic EnvironmentalLaw, and the development to the Basic Lawfor Promoting the Creation of a Recycle-Oriented Society of 2001. He went on toexplain how the fees and the manifestsystem worked, and how consumers couldfollow (via the website) appliances throughthis system to the point where the appliancewas recycled.

The definition of the recycling rate, which isdetermined by the law, was given as:

Recycled valuables (t)Recycling rate =

Initial weight (t)

Exhibit D.32 Tokyo Eco Recycle site

Each product has its own target recycling rate:

• Television – 55%• Refrigerator – 50%• Washing machine – 50%• Air conditioner – 60%

Tokyo Eco Recycle achieves 70% recyclingrate as an average on all product lines.

There are monthly fluctuations in the numberof home appliances recovered for recycling inJapan, the hotter months seeing an increasein refrigeration and air conditioning units, forobvious reasons. Also, the Japaneseworkforce purchasing new products withbonuses earned at work causes peaks inDecember and January (Exhibit D.34).

Key facts about the site at Wakasu are:

• Established – 22 November 1999• Capital investment – ¥300 million

(~£1.5 million)• Shareholders – Hitachi 48%, Ariake Kogyo

34%, Hitachi Home & Life 3%, Mitsubishi3%, Sharp 3%, Sanyo 3%, Sony 3%,Fujitsu General 3%

• Site area – 7,609 m2

• Building area – 2,892 m2

• Total floor space – 3,319 m2

• Structure – Steel• Number of floors – 2• Project period – 1999-2001• Handling capacity – 400,000 units/y (8 h),

600,000 units/y (12 h)• Project owner – Tokyo Eco Recycle Co Ltd

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1stTransport fee (consumer cost)

Retailer

Middle collection point(380)

Recycling plants

2ndTransport fee

Processing cost

Storage fee

ManufacturerRetailer or Post Office

Consumer

Appliance

Recycle manifest

Recycle fee

Exhibit D.33 Japanese manifest system

Television ¥2,700 (£13.50)Refrigerator ¥4,600 (£23.00)Washing machine ¥2,400 (£12.00)Air conditioner ¥3,500 (£17.50)

Recycling process

Processing at Tokyo Eco Recycle starts withproduct identification by utilising the bar codeon the manifest attached to the appliance.The appliance is then weighed.

Products are then dismantled by hand,valuable resources are reclaimed andhazardous materials separated out. Theremainder is processed using technologysimilar to that seen in all the plants visited;however, the vertical shredder used, made byKinki, has undergone modifications. Thesemodifications were requested by Hitachi,which now holds the patent on the modifiedshredder. The whole system is monitored byan ‘operation and management supportinformation system’ which integrates themultiple databases used.

Planning and status reports of goods arriving,treatment and remaining stock are updatedevery 30 minutes. A full flow report isproduced the following day. With information

collected regarding container stock, daily workefficiency and daily CFC recovery monitoringcombined, this produces sufficient informationfor policymaking and operational planning onan hourly, daily and monthly basis.

Single type polymer reclamation is becomingmore important. Single type polymers used insalad crispers from refrigeration units andwashing machine components are set asideand processed through a separate shreddingsystem and washed, to produce single typepolymers for remoulding into new componentparts for products such as washing machinebases and air conditioning covers.

99.8% of materials such as ferrous, stainlesssteel, copper and aluminium are recycled, andrefrigerant gas is incinerated; less than 0.1%is landfilled at Tokyo Eco Recycle.

Polymers not separated for reuse can also beincinerated; this material is then used forroadbed, or incinerated ash becomes rawmaterial for cement based products.

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Exhibit D.34 Number of home appliances recycled in Japan, 2001/2

Foam from refrigeration units is now sold tothe Japanese government for insulationmaterials on low-cost housing projects and toassist in complying with Green Procurementlegislation.

The next issue for the company is therecycling of resources. In Japan the 20th

century was the time of ‘incineration andlandfill’; the 21st century is ‘recycling ofresources,’ not only from waste recycling butthe overall impact on the environment,packaging, transport, etc.

After a short video presentation on the workingsat Tokyo Eco Recycle, the mission team wereshown the process from a viewing gallerywhere they were allowed to take pictures.

In a secure room, accessed by fingerprintidentification system, they were shown PCand gaming machine processing. It waspolicy to destroy information recordingdevices such as hard drives; removed harddrives were placed in a container whichpunctured the device in four places, givingreassurance to end users with regard to datadestruction (Exhibit D.36).

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Exhibit D.35 Resource recycling in Japan

Exhibit D.36 Processing and recycling of devices containing confidential information (source: http://greenweb.hitachi.co.jp/en/sustainable/resources.html)

Tokyo Eco Recycle Co Ltd

User properties (classified data) User responsibility

IT equipment(PC, server, etc)

Information recording media

Hard disk drive FDD MO CD VTR

Datadeletion

anddestruction

Recyclingand properprocessing

Work contractIndustrialwaste contract

Hard disk drive destruction service includes physical destruction and on-site service

Perforation takesapproximately 15 seconds per unit

Drill perforation(four locations)

Material recovery

Scrap stainless steelScrap aluminium

Precious metals, etc

Component materials Production Usage Recovery and disassembly Proper disposal

Reuse and recycling

Recycling

Summary

Tokyo Eco Recycle was set up as ademonstration plant between 1995 and 1998, part-funded by METI and the AEHA.The system was established in collaborationwith government, investors (from Group B companies) and local wastemanagement companies.

The knowledge and experience of thecompany will be a great benefit to governmentand industry in Europe to obtain complianceunder the WEEE directive and otherenvironmental and sustainability policies.

All indications were that Tokyo Eco Recycleand other processing plants wereinvestigating the possibilities and economicdrivers associated with polymer typeseparation from a mixed plastic wasteassociated with EoL electrical products.

Great emphasis was attached to manualpretreatment of products to add value tomaterial arisings, more effective materialseparation, and the protection of theworkforce and Japanese society generally.

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Recycling is not a dirty word in Japan

Much has been made over recent years ofhow clean and tidy Japan is compared toEurope and the UK in particular. Japan is avery forward looking nation, identifying theproblem of resource productivity early andthen embarking on a national programme ofeducating people into recycling of waste.

Clearly there is a cultural difference thatpervades all aspects of Japanese society.More difficult is to understand how this hasbeen handed on to the younger generation.The area of recycling electronic scrap gives aclear insight into one powerful mechanism:long-term education.

All of the sites visited had education facilitieswhich were used to tell people about thebenefits and positive impact that recyclinghave on everyday life. Clearly this is notentirely philanthropic; there is a publicityaspect to this as they are manufacturers aswell as recyclers. Also, by law, any profitgenerated from the recycling fees has to bereinvested in the HARL process. However, itis also clear that most companies arepassionate about getting the 3R principlesacross.

Matsushita Electric, best known for itsPanasonic brand, has led the way through itsadvanced recycling plant in the westernJapanese town of Yashiro. The MatsushitaEco Technology Centre (METEC) came intobeing after the Japanese government passedtough recycling measures that came intoeffect in 2001.

Exhibit E.1 METEC facility

Focusing on METEC shows what one plantalone can achieve and what we should aspireto in the UK.

Exhibit E.2 shows a particular demonstrationunit at METEC aimed at children. Themachine, as can be seen from thephotograph, demonstrates the separation ofdiffering materials by weight. In the high-volume airflow, the light balls are sent directlyacross while the heavier ones fall to thebottom. The subject is treated as a fun activityrather than a straight teaching method. Themachine that is used is clearly not expensiveto build and the simple design can very easilybe explained to an audience of young children.The clever part in the demonstration is thatthe children are invited to interact with theequipment for themselves.

All the balls have differing symbols inJapanese representing the different materials,mainly plastics. This simple unit adds interestand meaning for the children who havepreviously been given a factory tour. It allowsthe children to be able to understand in theirown way how the plastic recycling machinerythey have just been shown in the factoryactually works.

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Appendix EEDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION!

This is also the case with the nextdemonstrator shown in Exhibit E.3 whichdeals with magnetic and nonmagnetic items,as seen in the plant where the fridges andwashing machines are shredded and thedifferent metals are separated.

Small magnetic and nonmagnetic bolts aredropped into the hopper. The magnetic boltsare attracted to the wheel and after half arevolution are dislodged by the blade, thenonmagnetic bolts falling straight through.

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Exhibit E.2 Demonstration of separating differing materials by weight at METEC

Exhibit E.3 Demonstration of separation of magnetic and nonmagnetic items at METEC

Light ballsexit

Heavy ballsdrop through

Light ballscollected

Balls dropped into hopper


Heavy ballsdrop through

Light ballsexit


Dislodged magneticbolts drop here

Exhibit E.4 shows individual letters fromschool children who have visited the facilityon a school trip expressly to understand theneed for recycling. There are also severalpublications that back up the demonstrationunit, one of which is mentioned in this report.

While units of this education type exist in theUK in places such as the Science Museumand elsewhere, being able to see the full-scale units in operation dismantling TVs,washing machines and fridges as at METECgives them added impact.

For more information about METEC see linkwww.panasonic.co.jp/eco/en/metec.

Proof of education in action

The recycling ethos extends into everyday lifewith virtually every drinks dispenser having abuilt-in collection point for bottles and cans. Inmost stores there are facilities for recyclingpaper, plastic and even batteries.

Another example is a cleaning crew sortingwaste from a train that has just been cleaned(Exhibit E.7). As can be seen from thephotographs the Japanese have decided thatindustry should take the lead. This is part ofthe normal train cleaning process tosegregate waste – every train undergoes thisprocess each time it returns to the terminus(maybe another differentiating experience forMr Branson to emulate!)

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Exhibit E.4 Letters from school children who havevisited METEC

Exhibit E.5 Part of the education story at METEC

Exhibit E.6 It’s not waste, it’s treasure! (banner at METEC)

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Exhibit E.7 Waste from trains is separated into plastic, paper and metal (mainly cans)

Exhibit Page Caption

S.1 4 Japanese environmental lawsS.2 5 Charges for recycling of home appliances under the HARL systemS.3 6 Flow of recycling manifestS.4 6 HARL recycling targets and actual ratesS.5 6 Typical percentage weight of material components of home appliances1.1 12 Japan in silhouette4.1 19 Japanese environmental legislation4.2 20 Legislative circularity in Japanese waste management4.3 22 Key sectors affected by LPEUR5.1 24 HARL system for disposal, transfer and recycling of home appliances5.2 25 Location of Group A and Group B recycling plants6.1 26 HARL: number of home appliances processed, 2001-20046.2 27 HARL: recycling rates, 2001-20046.3 27 HARL: tonnes of material recovered, 2004/57.1 29 HARL ticketing process7.2 29 HARL vouchers7.3 30 HARL system obligations7.4 31 Flow of collection and transportation in accordance with HARL7.5 32 Flow of recycling manifest8.1 33 Group A companies 8.2 33 Group B companies 8.3 34 An early Japanese basic processing concept 8.4 34 Process flow 8.5 35 Refrigerant degassing line and mechanical handling at Hyper Cycle Systems 8.6 35 Removed TV speakers at Tokyo Eco Recycle 8.7 35 Automated glass separation at METEC 8.8 36 Washing machine handling at METEC 8.9 36 Washing machine disassembly at Tokyo Eco Recycle 8.10 36 Air conditioner line at Hyper Cycle Systems 8.11 36 Kinki shredder 8.12 36 Shredder outputs at Tokyo Eco Recycle 8.13 36 Twin-shaft shredder (German system) 8.14 37 Briquetted polyurethane foam (Japan) 8.15 37 A précis of 'The Japanese System' 9.1 39 Shape-memory washer and example of disassembly system10.1 40 Classification of plastics recycling10.2 41 Factors leading to degradation of plastics10.3 41 Plastic deterioration characteristics10.4 42 Estimated plastic fraction by mass in HARL product streams10.5 44 Residual mixed plastic chips

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Appendix FLIST OF EXHIBITS

Exhibit Page Caption

10.6 46 Rotating drum (eddy current) metal separator10.7 46 Shredder12.1 48 HARL recycling targets and actual rates, 2004A.1 52 Mr Kakuchi – translator, guide and ‘minder’B.1 53 The mission team at Tokyo Eco RecycleD.1 61 The mission team visit the International Plastic FairD.2 66 Mitsubishi Electric’s ‘horizontal self-recycling’ conceptD.3 66 High-precision separation of plastics at Higashihama plantD.4 67 Recovered plastics at MitsubishiD.5 67 Freon recovery process at Higashihama plantD.6 67 Processing of recovered refrigerant gas into cleaned productD.7 68 Fluorinated plastics made from recovered R22D.8 68 Flow sheet of Higashihama plantD.9 71 Participants in the EFSOT project D.10 71 EFSOT project schedule D.11 75 Process flow at METECD.12 75 Approximate percentage by weight of material found in the four products

defined by HARLD.13 75 Percentage by weight of recycling required by HARL and actually achieved

by METECD.14 77 Storage and stillage at METECD.15 78 Disassembly at METECD.16 78 Air conditioner disassembly at METECD.17 81 Processing flow of KRSC appliance recycling plantD.18 82 Location of Green Cycle CorporationD.19 83 Green Cycle Corporation (Sony) facilityD.20 83 Process flow at Green Cycle plantD.21 84 TV disassembly at Green Cycle plant: fine particle countermeasures and

waste collection sortingD.22 85 Laptop disassembly at Green Cycle plantD.23 85 Television disassembly at Green Cycle plantD.24 86 CRT treatment process at Green Cycle plantD.25 86 TV/computer screens undergoing treatment at Green Cycle plantD.26 87 Conveyor system with air conditioners ready for processing at Green

Cycle plantD.27 88 Processing of air conditioners at Green Cycle plantD.28 88 Collecting fluorocarbon refrigerant at Green Cycle plantD.29 89 Comparison of typical UK and Japanese washing machinesD.30 90 Manual removal of aluminium heat shield from back of fridge/freezer

at Green Cycle plant

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D.31 91 Fractionated plastic at Green Cycle plantD.32 93 Tokyo Eco Recycle site D.33 94 Japanese manifest system D.34 95 Number of home appliances recycled in Japan, 2001/2 D.35 96 Resource recycling in Japan D.36 96 Processing and recycling of devices containing confidential information E.1 98 METEC facilityE.2 99 Demonstration of separating differing materials by weight at METECE.3 99 Demonstration of separation of magnetic and nonmagnetic items at METECE.4 100 Letters from school children who have visited METECE.5 100 Part of the education story at METECE.6 100 It’s not waste, it’s treasure! (banner at METEC)E.7 101 Waste from trains is separated into plastic, paper and metal (mainly cans)

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~ approximately≈ approximately equal to€ euro (£1 ≈ €1.45)¥ yen (£1 ≈ ¥200)3Rs reduce, reuse, recycleABS acrylonitrile-butadiene-styreneA/C air conditioner ACCA Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK)AD active disassembly ADSM active disassembly using smart materialsAEHA Association for Electric Home Appliances (Japan)B2B business-to-businessBP boiling pointoC degrees Celsius CAD computer-aided design CARE Comprehensive Approach for the Recycling and Eco-efficiency of Electronics

(EUREKA network)CEO Chief Executive OfficerCFC chlorofluorocarbonCMR closed material recycling CO2 carbon dioxide CRT cathode ray tubes DEM Disassemblability Evaluation Method DTI Department of Trade and Industry (UK)DVD digital versatile discE&E electrical and electronicEC European Commission ECP Environmentally Conscious Product (Hitachi Ltd, Japan) EFSOT Environment-Friendly SOldering Technology (EC project) EfW energy from waste EoL end of life EU European UnionF faxFP5 Framework Programme 5 (EC) g gravitational forceGDP gross domestic product GPL Green Purchasing Law (Japan)h hourHARL Home Appliance Recycling Law (Japan)HCFC hydrochlorofluorocarbon HEART High Efficient Applicable Recycle Technology (system, Japan) ID identification

Appendix GGLOSSARY

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IMS Intelligent Manufacturing Systems IP intellectual propertyIPF International Plastic FairIPR intellectual property right(s)ISO International Organization for StandardizationITP International Technology Promoter (network, DTI)JV joint venture kg kilogramkm kilometre = 1,000 mkWh kilowatt-hourL leftLCA Life Cycle Assessment (method) LCD liquid crystal display LPEUR Law for Promotion of Effective Utilisation of Resources (Japan)m metreMEI Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd (Japan)METEC Matsushita Eco Technology Centre Co Ltd (Japan)METI Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Japan)mm millimetre = 0.001 mMSW municipal solid wasteOEM original equipment manufacturer Pb lead PC personal computer PCB printed circuit boardPDA personal digital assistant PDF portable document formatPERL Production Engineering Research Laboratory (Hitachi Ltd, Japan) PET polyethylene terephthalatePLA polylactide PMG precious metal groupPP polypropylene ppm parts per millionPS polystyrenePV photovoltaicPVC polyvinyl chlorideR rightR22 refrigerant 22 (chlorodifluoromethane: CHClF2)R115 refrigerant 115 (chloropentafluoroethane: C2ClF5)R134 refrigerant 134 (1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane: C2H2F4)R502 refrigerant 502 (azeotropic mixture of 48.8% R22 + 51.2% R115)R&D research and developmentRDF refuse-derived fuel REM Recyclability Evaluation Method RoHS Restriction of Hazardous Substances (EU directive)S&T science and technology SEEDA South East England Development Agency (UK)SME small to medium enterprise SMT surface mount technology

Sn tin t tonne = metric ton = 1,000 kgT telephoneTV televisionUK United KingdomUS(A) United States (of America)VCR video cassette recorderWEEE waste electrical and electronic equipmentWIP work in process W/M washing machine y year

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Grant for Research and Development – is available through the nine English RegionalDevelopment Agencies. The Grant for Researchand Development provides funds for individualsand SMEs to research and develop technologicallyinnovative products and processes. The grant isonly available in England (the DevolvedAdministrations have their own initiatives).http://www.dti.gov.uk/r-d/

The Small Firms Loan Guarantee – is a UK-wide, Government-backed scheme that providesguarantees on loans for start-ups and youngbusinesses with viable business propositions.http://www.dti.gov.uk/sflg/pdfs/sflg_booklet.pdf

Grant for Investigating an Innovative Idea – is designed to help UK businesses developinnovative products, processes or services thatare in the very early stages of development. http://www.dti.gov.uk/innovative-idea/index.htm

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships – enableprivate and public sector research organisations to apply their research knowledge to importantbusiness problems. Specific technology transferprojects are managed, over a period of one tothree years, in partnership with a university,college or research organisation that has expertise relevant to your business.http://www.ktponline.org.uk/

Knowledge Transfer Networks – aim to improvethe UK’s innovation performance through a singlenational over-arching network in a specific field oftechnology or business application. A KTN aims to encourage active participation of all networkscurrently operating in the field and to establishconnections with networks in other fields thathave common interest. http://www.dti.gov.uk/ktn/

Collaborative Research and Development –helps industry and research communities worktogether on R&D projects in strategicallyimportant areas of science, engineering andtechnology, from which successful new products,processes and services can emerge.http://www.dti.gov.uk/crd/

Access to Best Business Practice – is availablethrough the Business Link network. This initiativeaims to ensure UK business has access to bestbusiness practice information for improvedperformance.http://www.dti.gov.uk/bestpractice/

Support to Implement Best Business Practice

– offers practical, tailored support for small andmedium-sized businesses to implement bestpractice business improvements.http://www.dti.gov.uk/implementbestpractice/

Finance to Encourage Investment in Selected

Areas of England – is designed to supportbusinesses looking at the possibility of investingin a designated Assisted Area but needingfinancial help to realise their plans, normally in the form of a grant or occasionally a loan.http://www.dti.gov.uk/regionalinvestment/

Other DTI products that help UK businesses acquire andexploit new technologies

Global Watch InformationGlobal Watch Online – a unique internet-enabled service delivering immediate andinnovative support to UK companies in theform of fast-breaking worldwide business andtechnology information. The website providesunique coverage of UK, European andinternational research plus businessinitiatives, collaborative programmes andfunding sources.Visit: www.globalwatchservice.com

Global Watch magazine – distributed freewith a circulation of over 50,000, this monthlymagazine features news of overseasgroundbreaking technology, innovation andmanagement best practice to UK companiesand business intermediaries.Contact:

[email protected]

UKWatch magazine – a quarterly magazine,published jointly by science and technologygroups of the UK Government. HighlightingUK innovation and promoting inwardinvestment opportunities into the UK, thepublication is available free of charge to UKand overseas subscribers.Contact:

[email protected]

Global Watch Missions – enabling teams ofUK experts to investigate innovation and itsimplementation at first hand. The technologyfocused missions allow UK sectors andindividual organisations to gain internationalinsights to guide their own strategies forsuccess.Contact:

[email protected]

Global Watch Secondments – helping smalland medium sized companies to sendemployees abroad or receive key people fromanother country. Secondments are aneffective way of acquiring the knowledge,technology and connections essential todeveloping a business strategically.Contact:

[email protected]

Global Watch Technology Partnering –providing free, flexible and direct assistancefrom international technology specialists toraise awareness of, and provide access to,technology and collaborative opportunitiesoverseas. Delivered to UK companies by anetwork of 22 International TechnologyPromoters, with some 8,000 currentcontacts, providing support ranging frominformation and referrals to more in-depthassistance with licensing arrangements andtechnology transfer.Contact: [email protected]

For further information on the Global WatchService please visitwww.globalwatchservice.com

The DTI Global Watch Service provides support dedicatedto helping UK businesses improve their competitivenessby identifying and accessing innovative technologies andpractices from overseas.

Printed in the UK on recycled paper with 75% de-inked post-consumer waste content

First published in January 2006 by Pera on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry

© Crown copyright 2006

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