With the aim of promoting the recycling of small, end-of-life electronic appliances, a draft act was submitted to the Japanese Diet on 9 March, and enacted at the Diet on 3 August, 2012. The recycling scheme outlined in this draft bill was conceptually designed based on a report submitted by Japan′s Central Environmental Council on 31 January, 2012. It intends to give birth to new recycling flows, currently still not being normally tapped. The scheme can be made economically feasible through efficient collection and transport on the regional and/or national basis through the facilitation of collaborative actions among multi-stakeholders using several assistance measures, including an easing of certain regulations.
This paper describes the outline of the proposed recycling scheme and points out actions that will be needed to ensure continued and environmentally sound recycling.

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The objective of this study was to acquire fundamental knowledge to be incorporated in the establishment of an environmentally friendly system for collecting and recycling small batteries in Japan. We conducted both a chemical analysis of small batteries, as well as a consumer questionnaire on usage of small batteries in home electric appliances and behavior surrounding battery disposal. Using the results, we estimated the amount of metals found in these small, domestic-use batteries.
We concluded that various metals, including rare metals, are contained in the small batteries. As a result of the consumer questionnaire, it became clear that 70 % or more of the small batteries are not being removed when small home electric appliances are finally disposed of. The survey also revealed that recognition of the law and system for collection and recycling of small rechargeable batteries is approximately 30-40 %. Moreover, when the amount of metal contained in home-use small batteries was estimated, amounts were equivalent to 10-40 % that of the annual domestic demands for lithium, cobalt, and nickel ; and home-use cadmium is comparable to the annual demand. This study clearly shows the importance of establishing proper collection and recycling systems to recover these resources.

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In order to identify the current status and future issues surrounding domestic material flows of used electrical and electronic equipment in Japan, the authors explored domestic flows and amonts for secondhand exports in four categories of home appliances (air conditioners, TVs, refrigerators and washing machines) and small-sized home appliances including mobile phones. We pointed out several important issues related to estimating domestic flows for home appliances : in particular, the influence of replacement promotion policy for waste generation and consideration of flows from consumers/retailers to informal collectors/recyclers. We reviewed an estimation method for secondhand exports and pointed out the limitations of using a custom statistics approach. We suggested using both approaches (custom statistics and mass balance) to quantify the actual export amount. Major destinations for CRT TVs are Vietnam, the Philippines and Macau, on the other hand, mobile phones are being exported to Hong Kong and Afghanistan respectively. From the view-point of resource conservation and prevention of illegal trade, it is important to monitor exports of secondhand electrical and electronic equipment and the destination points.

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Collection and recycling systems for small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Europe have been developed based on the 2003 EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE Directive), which was transposed into the national laws of EU Member States. With the growing recognition of the potential for small WEEE to supply materials that are critical to the continued growth of high-tech industry, collection and recycling of small WEEE has became an important agenda point not only in environmental policy but also in industry policy since the late 2000s. Recognition of this is reflected in the revision of the WEEE Directive, which was agreed upon in June 2012. This article provides an overview of various policy development in the area of recycling and resource security, followed by a review of the implementation of current WEEE Directive, some discussion points during the revision process, final outcomes of the revision and initiatives of individual member states. A focus of the paper is collection of small WEEE, which has been one of the weaknesses in the implementation of the current WEEE Directive and a crucial starting point for the efficient resource retrieval Europe is striving to achieve.

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In this paper, the flows of EOL (end-of-life) small home appliances (SHA) are overviewed and the problems clarified. Some problems exist in the following three huge and undesirable flows : flows into the hibernated stocks, landfilled EOLs and invisible exports. In order to decrease these flows, an efficient recycling system must be established. Since collection and transportation is responsible for the initial stage of the system, efficiency in these stages is critical to the proper working of the entire system. Our simulation revealed that the efficiency of any collection system varies depending on the regional geographical features. Also, potential targeted items, especially highly sophisticated devices such as mobile phones, will evolve rapidly. Hence, the recycling system for EOL SHAs must be flexible. In order to establish an efficient recycling system, the cooperation of all stakeholders is necessary.

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This paper reports on the role of and problems surrounding the physical separation process for the recycling of critical metals. It is essential to concentrate critical metals such as tantalum, cobalt and rare earth elements using physical separation techniques in order to recover these elements from discarded domestic appliances and recycle them. It is especially important to concretely achieve the basic concept of physical separation ; that is, particle liberation at the coarse-size state. In addition, individual issues relating specifically to tantalum capacitors, neodymium magnets and phosphors are also introduced in this paper. The problem of resource recycling in Japan is no longer the burden of the recycling industry alone. A series of recycling systems, dealing with everything from product design to physical separation and metal smelting, must be fully optimized in order to ultimately establish an economically viable approach for the recycling of critical metals.

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The significance of the Small Electrical and Electronic Equipment Recycling Act lies firstly in the fact that this Act adds a new purpose to laws regarding 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle), by aiming to not only reduce environmental load but also to advance the effective use of resources. Secondly, it is significant in that the Act pursues the promotion of recycling by respecting the voluntary actions of stakeholders.
Because of the second point whether the system under this Act is going to succeed or not depends on the actions of the stakeholders, i.e. local communities, approved operators and retailers. There are two important points linked to the success of this system. The first point is assuring that the approved operators do not become unprofitable and that local communities do not become overburdened. The second point is guaranteeing that the system will continue for a certain period even in the event that approved operators are not seeing profits due to changing market conditions.
Certain issues still remain unresolved : Will a voluntary action system be as effective as the mandatory system, which burdens certain stakeholders? Will the effects of the system be adequate to make it work even if the voluntary action system is not fully effective? These issues will be discussed and resolved in five years when the Bill is reviewed.

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