Now, by recycling processing of used electric cables, the recycling rate of copper and aluminum of the conductor are almost 100%, but the plastic separated from the conductor is about 50%. Those plastics are dealt with for counter value. The remaining plastics are discarded as industrial waste. As a technical subject the separation of the nugget plastics is important.
Recently the increase in export of used electric cables is remarkable; especially the export to China is increasing. In China, plastic is thoroughly separated at cheap personnel expenses and the plastic can be sold for counter value. It is because the Chinese purchase price is higher than Japanese. For that reason, the amount of processing used electric cable in Japanese manufacture is decreasing and it is doubtful of continuation. Copper and plastics which are the material of electric cables are recyclable materials. They are worried about exhaustion in near future. Used electric cables should be changed into various material, and it should be re-made to recycle as a material of electric cables. Japan Electric Cable Technology Center investigated the present condition and the problem of waste electric cable recycling, at the same time it studied various kinds of recycling technology. The present condition of Japanese electric cable recycling is reported.

View full abstract

The refined copper which is produced by the copper smelting plant is manufactured into copper electric wires and copper fabricating products etc. These products are processed into the machinery parts and copper is then used in society through these products. This process is referred to outgoing copper in the copper recycling system.
Copper from old electrical products and machinery parts is recycled to produce electric wires and copper fabricating products etc. This process is referred to as incoming copper in the copper recycling system. A copper recycling system for both outgoing and incoming copper has been in existence in Japan for many years.
In 2005, 1.38 million tons of refined copper and 1.98 million tons of copper electric wires and copper fabricating products etc. were produced in Japan. On the other hand, 1.55 million tons of copper were wasted from the process of manufacturing machinery parts and from other electrical products. 1.42 million tons of copper were collected to be recycled and 0.13 million tons were presumed to be abandoned and buried. The percentage of copper recycled in Japan were 71.6% and 91.6% including the recycling of imported and exported copper, respectively.
As there is no statistics for the waste and collection of copper in Japan and very little information about buried materials, more investigations of this topics including statistics should be required to create awareness of their current recycling level. Otherwise it is very difficult for the concerned parties to make a concrete plan to accelerate copper recycling such as the technical development of easy reuse and the review of the related system. Export of recycled copper to China has been increasing. This matter also needs to be reviewed in relation to Japan's copper resources.

View full abstract

This paper shows the forecast of discharge amount of End of Life IT products. The discharge amount increased from 1998, which was influenced by the increasing of sales volume. And the discharge volume was stable from 2001 to 2006.
Discharge of the EOL IT products in 2004 was assumed at 156,000t which involved 116,000t for business users and 40,000t for private house hold users.

View full abstract

Electronic and electric equipments are made of “base metal” and “resin” as chief materials, also many kinds of “precious metals” and “rare metals” are used as functional materials. As the global economy rapidly growing, especially metal resources are short in supply and soaring of metal prices has been continued. These days people earnestly shrill the importance of recycling than ever.
Used electronic and electric equipments are recycled in our factories through the processes of disassembling and removing reusable parts and fluorescent tubes as a preliminary step, secondly through crushing by a special type of shredding machine to obtain the grain size required. Afterward, those are sorted out by a magnetic separator, a sieving machine and other separators. Lastly we process them into the form and quality that are suitable for metal recovery by nonferrous metals smelters, who we mainly deal with. Owing to improvement of processing technology, we achieve virtually zero emission recycling as for used electronic and electric equipments. We yield a high recovery of base metals such as iron and aluminum, and also precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium. We introduce in details our recycling system in the paper.

View full abstract

Autocatalyst is the largest demand sector for Platinum Group Metals (hereinafter referred to as PGMs). Therefore, promotion of recovering PGMs from scrapped autocatalysts is significant for supply of the metals.
In Japan, annual demand of platinum and palladium for autocatalysts was approximately 20 tons each in 2005, contrasting with small quantity recovered from scrapped autocatalysts. We had interviewed with auto recycling sectors, PGMs smelters & refineries and catalysts manufactures. Based on the research we estimate around 40% of used PGMs was recovered from catalysts of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) generated in Japan and the recovered quantity of platinum was 1.1 tons (palladium: 0.7 tons, rhodium: 0.2 tons). Principal factor in the outflow is export of secondhand vehicles and auto parts, and large part of them is shipped to Asian countries. Meanwhile, scrapped autocatalysts collected from foreign markets were more than those from domestic market. Adding quantity from the imported scraps, final recovered quantity of platinum in Japan was estimated to be 4.5 tons (palladium: 3.0 tons, rhodium: 0.7 tons). In the world, platinum and palladium consumed for autocatalysts were approximately 100 tons each in 2005. However, recovered quantity from scrapped autocatalysts was relatively small, around 20 tons per metal.
Accompanied with increase of PGMs demand for autocatalysts, recoverable quantity of PGMs from those scraps is definitely growing. Accordingly, how to advance recycling PGMs will be more and more important. Inefficiency of recovering PGMs is mainly due to incomplete social system of automobile recycling, especially in developing countries. It is expected that Japan, making use of latest technologies and experience, will take the leading role in Asia to establish multilateral recycling system of end-of-life vehicles and scrapped auto parts. Consequently, such efforts promote recovering PGMs from these expanding resources.

View full abstract

Hybrid vehicles production is increasing year by year coping with the concern about the increase of carbon dioxide emission, and is estimated 2.5 million in 2010. Nickel metal hydride battery is mainly used for these vehicles, and 23,750t of nickel, 8,375t of rare-earth elements and 2,875t of cobalt would be contained in these batteries, in maximum, in that year. The technology development will be necessary for the recycling of these batteries at the end of use. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) has carried out the technology development for five years, financed by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan, to recover nickel, rare earths and cobalt from the nickel metal hydride batteries for the hybrid vehicles. The battery modules are crushed after cooling in liquid nitrogen, and separated with density, particle size and magnetism into positive and negative active materials, nickel and cobalt hydroxides and the nickel-rare earths-cobalt alloy, steel and plastics. The recovered positive active material is leached with sulfuric solution, neutralized for the selective removal of rare-earths and iron, and separated to the nickel and cobalt solutions by solvent extraction. The recovered negative active material is passed the screen or the magnetic separator for iron removal, and decarburized with hydrogen after reduction of the entrained positive active materials, to prevent from the oxidation of rare-earths. The both recovered active materials are verified to be re-usable for the battery production. The demonstration runs with capacity of one ton of battery modules a day were carried out in 2006 successfully and the high recovery rates of those metal elements were achieved.

View full abstract

In 2001, four kinds of portable rechargeable batteries were specified in the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources and the manufacturers were obliged voluntarily to collect and recycle them. “Japan Portable Rechargeable Battery Recycling Center, JBRC” was founded in the “Battery Association of Japan, BAJ” at the same time, and started cooperation among the manufacturers to establish collection and recycling system of the portable rechargeable batteries. In 2004, JBRC became independent of BAJ. This paper introduces the recent activities of the JBRC, in especial, about the NiCd, NiMH, and Li-ion batteries.

View full abstract

An article published in KURASHI-NO-TECHO (Notebook on Daily Living) in the autumn of 1983 regarding possible environmental pollution by mercury contained in spent dry-cell batteries discarded into the environment along with other waste, triggered major social concern on the disposal of such batteries. Since then, a number of municipalities that collects and stores spent dry-cell batteries separately from other waste has steadily increased.
Under such circumstances, measures were reviewed by experts in the Living Environment Council of the Ministry of Welfare, and recommended guidelines were submitted by the Council on the reduction of mercury in dry-cell batteries and necessity of setting up an extensive collection and processing system. In response, the Extensive Spent Dry-cell Collection/Processing Conference was established, headed by the Japan Waste Management Association, an extensive dry-cell collection/processing plan was drawn up, and a system of efficiently and safely transporting and processing spent dry-cell batteries was established. Spent fluorescent tubes were then included in the target items in April, 1999.
In addition to the major objective of the plan, which is to properly collect and process mercury contained in spent dry-cell batteries and fluorescent tubes, zinc, manganese metals, and glass are also recycled.

View full abstract

Law for the Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances (Home appliances recycling law) was enforced in April, 2001. Air-conditioners, television sets, refrigerators and washing machines are in scope of this law. Manufacturers have not only collected and recycled these appliances, but also removed and treated hazardous materials such as CFC and Cathode-ray tube glass containing lead under this law.
The home appliances recycling law has been going fine even after 6 years passed since the enforcement of law. We will explain the situation and the issue of these appliances recycling at this section.

View full abstract

To realize environmental management, the Ricoh has been promoting such activities as manufacturing of products with less environmental impact, contributing to customers in reducing their environmental impact and pursuing profitability of recycling business. From the viewpoint of the recycling business, the Ricoh has been building their unique collection and recycling system to achieve 99% of recycling ratio, involving 92% of material recycling ratio, for end-of-life copiers. In this report, the following is described in detail:
-Overview of the collection and recycling system
-Commercialization of a flux for steel manufacture with waste toner as raw material which is one of applications for material recycling development
-Diagnosis technology for reuse purpose using the Quality Engineering which is vital for reconditioning copiers

View full abstract

I surveyed about recycling of PC carried out by vendors based on the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources. Under this law, it is obliged to taking over PC-vendor if it is demanded collection of a PC. However, the disposal of PC to the collection system of PC-vendor is not duty of a company and a consumer. In case of business PC's recycling, PC-vendor carries it out individually. The collection results reaches 680,000 units but is at the uppermost limit, whereby business PC's introduced through lease are disposed of by leasing companies. On the other hand, recycling of household PC, carried out under cooperation with Japan Post, is gradually increased and exceeded 350,000 units. This is because any of cities, towns and villages collecting garbage disposed of by citizens took off PC from an object of garbage collection. However, there are many other disposed household-PC besides recycling systems of PC-vendor. Household appliance stores and some used goods distributors perform taking care of the PC, which became unnecessary with a customer gratis. Collected PC's are recycled by the processing that obeyed law and exceed the targeted value of resources reused rate greatly. In the area of PC, it becomes more important to promote 3R in order to create a sustainable society.

View full abstract

Japanese mobile phone and PHS industry established the “Mobile Recycle Network” in 2001, in which spent mobile phones and PHSs have been collected at mobile phone shops. However, the number of collected phones has a tendency to gradually decrease after 2000. This paper describes the countermeasures of the mobile phone industry and introduces practical recycling process of collected mobile phones.

View full abstract

In January 2005, the Law for the Recycling of End-of-Life Vehicles came into effect which required all vehicle manufacturers to collect and recycle or treat in an appropriate way CFCs, air bags and ASR produced from used vehicles.
The vehicle recycling system has been operating smoothly without any noticeable trouble. The cumulative number of collected end-of-life vehicles reached 7,090,000 since the enforcement of the law.
This paper discusses the systems for collecting and recycling of CFCs, air bags and ASR by auto manufacturers and explains Toyota’s activities regarding vehicle recycling.

View full abstract

In total, materials of two billion tons are used annually in Japan and the 40% are used at the construction works. The construction waste is generated in the amount of about 80 million tons a year.
Toward the sustainable society, 3R promotions and newly developed technology are needed in the construction sector.
In this papers, the current situation and issues on recycling technology for the construction by-product are described.

View full abstract

This paper described the outline of production and utilization of petroleum catalysts, in addition to the collection and recycling systems, the results of recycling and the major techlonogies. In the recycling of spent petroleum catalysts, we introduced the process for the recovery of molybdenum, vanadium, nickel and cobalt.

View full abstract

Various examples of the metals recycling on the commercial scale and the R&D stage from the wastewaters discharged from surface finishing industries have been described. Although the amount of the recycled metals from these wastewaters is limited as a whole, many processes are in operation or under development. Precious metals in the plating effluent, copper in the spent etching solutions, chromium in the effluents of plating and chromate treatment, nickel in the spent electroless nickel baths, and zinc and tin in the plating effluents can be recovered by using various methods such as precipitation, cementation, solvent extraction, resin ion exchange, and adsorption.

View full abstract

There have been a large demand of steel scraps in Asian countries, and Japan has been the main exporter of steel scrap since 1996. So, estimation of steel scrap generation in Japan in the future is of interest. For assessing scrap generation and materials’ stock in-use, Material Flow Analysis (MFA) has been of interest in USA, Europe and Japan, etc. Since steels are used for various products whose life-time distributions significantly differ, the MFA should have a dynamic aspect. The authors have conducted dynamic material flow analyses for steel to estimate the stock in-use and generation of scraps in Japan at a given time in the future by employing a population balance model (PBM). The PBM predicts the amount of post-consumer materials discarded in a particular year based on the year-by-year chronological data of the demand for material, as well as a lifetime distributions of the material according to each application. Obtained were the data about steel production, scrap consumption, and their import and export in the 20^th century in Japan as well as lifetime distributions of products and collection rates of scraps from end-of-life products (construction, machinery, automobile, container, other). It was estimated that the amount of collected obsolete scrap in Japan would increase up to 33.5 million t in 2030. It was found that quality requirements on steel scraps by other countries could have large influence on the quality of domestic steel. Finally, the author will discuss how the results of MFA can be used with Life Cycle Assessment for assessing the environmental impact of steels.

View full abstract

Wrought aluminum alloys represent more than 50% of domestic use of aluminum, but their recycling system has not been established except for used beverage cans. This study shows that the current recycling ratio of wrought aluminum alloys scrap to wrought aluminum alloys is estimated to be 23.8%, and expected to be increased to 34%.

View full abstract

The contribution of the cement industry to establishing the “Sound Material Circulation Society” was remarkable in the last decade, treating ferrous and non-ferrous metals slag, industrial and municipal wastes, and making them raw materials for producing cement. Recently, the cement industry has expanded their field not only to recycling but also to waste treatment such as soil remediation, digging up the former land fill sites. This paper describes recent activities of the cement industry about environmental conservation, in relation to cement production process and environmental regulations. Also the paper discusses the future destination of cement industry for creating the sustainable society.

View full abstract