Japan’s Recycling Success (Part 2): Glass and Electronic Waste

Glass is recycled in two ways, returnable or one-way system. Returnable system is the direct exchange of used bottle with bottle collectors. This is less frequent today as there is no standardized bottle size and type across all beverage companies (Edahiro, 2004). Reusing glass bottles is thus impractical as each bottle type is more brand specific. Hence, most glass bottles (and other glass waste) today are crushed and processed into cullets. Only transparent and brown colored glass, for which 80% of total glass wastes are, can be processed into glass cullets. The glass cullets are heated under high temperature to form supersol, a new material that is applicable in lots of civil engineering works. For example, supersol is used in road pavements, tree planting and even as a soil conditioner. The versatility of supersol is depicted in Video 1.

Video 1: Glass Recycling into Supersol material

Another category of recyclables is home appliances. The 4 types of products that are covered in the Home Recycling Law are air conditioners, televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. Since the law was enacted, the amount of waste collected in this category has been rising (see Diagram 1). Collected appliance waste will be manually dismantled in a factory to retrieve usable metal (eg iron, aluminium and copper) and plastic parts for recycling (see Diagram 2). During the process, hazardous substances, such as chlorofluorocarbons from refrigerators, might be released. Careful treatment of such contaminants is then done on-site before it is sent for proper disposal, usually to landfills. For an overview of the recycling process, look at Diagram 3 and Video 2 below. 

Diagram 1: Amount of collected home appliance waste (Source: Ministry of the Environment, 2012)

Diagram 2: Breakdown of recycled materials from appliance waste (Source: Ministry of the Environment, 2012)

Diagram 3: Overview of recycling home appliance waste (Source: Ministry of the Environment, 2012) 

Video 2: Recycling home appliance waste

Since home appliance is a kind of electronic product, the high complexity of the appliance waste would require a lot of manpower for sorting. Recycling is thus costly in this category. Nonetheless, appliance producers have to bear the cost because they have an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which was included in the Home Recycling Law. EPR notes that appliance producers are responsible for the item from cradle-to-grave, or the entire lifespan of the product. Hence, producers will be motivated to design more environmentally-friendly products and maximize recycling rate to its fullest. When companies infuse green designs into products, lesser materials might be needed and thus lesser waste will be generated. In my opinion, this EPR is a bold step taken by the government and reflects their commitment to reduce waste at source. By placing the waste management responsibility on producers, companies might be deterred from investing in Japan. Nonetheless, it is a very effective tool in treating the root cause of unnecessary pollution.

References

Edahiro, Junko. 'REUSABLE GLASS BOTTLES IN JAPAN｜JFS Japan For Sustainability'. JFS Japan for Sustainability. N.p., 2004. Web. Retrieved from http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id027782.html

Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan,. ‘Solid Waste Management and Recycling Technology of Japan'. N.p., 2012. Web. Retrieved from http://www.env.go.jp/en/recycle/smcs/attach/swmrt.pdf