■The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry aims to submit the Automobile Recycling Bill (tentative name) to the 2002 ordinary session of the Diet and, if possible, enact it by fiscal year 2004. This law would require automobile manufacturers to take back and recycle or properly dispose of refrigerants and airbags from dismantlers, and shredder scrap from shredders. While the actual processing would be carried out by contracted companies, the manufacturers would be responsible for paying the collection and processing costs.

■The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry aims to submit the Automobile Recycling Bill (tentative name) to the 2002 ordinary session of the Diet and, if possible, enact it by fiscal year 2004. This law would require automobile manufacturers to take back and recycle or properly dispose of refrigerants and airbags from dismantlers, and shredder scrap from shredders. While the actual processing would be carried out by contracted companies, the manufacturers would be responsible for paying the collection and processing costs.
Furthermore, the government plans to establish a system requiring registration standards for new car dealers, used car sellers, dismantlers, and shredders, necessitating monthly registration with the national government and local municipalities. A manifest system will also be introduced to clarify the flow of scrapped vehicles. Recycling costs are projected to be around ¥20,000 per vehicle, with the plan being to add this processing cost burden to the price at the time of new car purchase.
While the prepaid system prevents illegal dumping, issues such as corporate taxes being levied on collected fees were pointed out. Consequently, a new public management agency will be established to pool these fees. The number of vehicles owned domestically exceeds 70 million, with an estimated 5 million vehicles scrapped annually (including 500,000 to 1 million that flow into the used market).
Nearly all abandoned vehicles in Japan are collected and processed by the Roadside Abandoned Vehicle Processing Association, established in July 1991 by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) in collaboration with related industries, working with police and local governments. The final number of illegally dumped vehicles is estimated to be within 1%, meaning almost all scrapped vehicles undergo recycling processing. Scrapped vehicles ultimately processed are taken in by new car dealers, used car dealers, and auto repair shops, then passed on to dismantlers and shredders.
Reusable parts are removed and reused as used parts. Following the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's proper disposal guidelines, after removing liquids like gasoline and oil, as well as batteries, the vehicles undergo pressing. The remaining shredder dust is disposed of in landfills.
The background for establishing a new recycling law for end-of-life vehicles—which are almost entirely collected and have a relatively high recycling rate—is, of course, to clarify the responsibilities of manufacturers and emitters. However, the primary focus is on efficiently extracting valuable materials from shredder dust and promoting the effective utilization of the dust itself to reduce the final amount of waste.
■The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to submit the Automobile Recycling Bill (tentative name) to the 2002 ordinary session of the Diet, aiming for implementation around fiscal year 2004. This law will oblige automobile manufacturers to take back and recycle or properly process refrigerants and airbags from dismantlers, and shredder dust from shredders. While actual processing will be carried out by contracted companies, the responsibility for cost collection and processing burden will lie with the manufacturers.
Furthermore, the government plans to establish a system requiring registration with the national government or local municipalities for new car dealers, used car sellers, dismantlers, and shredders, based on set registration standards. A manifest system will also be introduced to clarify the flow of scrapped vehicles. Recycling costs are projected to be around ¥20,000 per vehicle, with the processing cost burden to be added to the price at the time of new car purchase.
While the prepaid system prevents illegal dumping, issues such as corporate taxes being levied on collected fees were pointed out. Consequently, a new public management agency will be established to pool these fees. The number of vehicles owned domestically exceeds 70 million, with an estimated 5 million vehicles scrapped annually (including 500,000 to 1 million that flow into the used car market).
Domestically, abandoned vehicles are collected and processed by the Roadside Abandoned Vehicle Processing Association, established in July 1991 by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association and related industries, in cooperation with police and local governments. The final number of illegally dumped vehicles is estimated to be within 1%, meaning nearly all scrapped vehicles undergo recycling processing. Scrapped vehicles ultimately processed are taken in by new car dealers, used car dealers, and auto repair shops, then passed on to dismantlers and shredders.
Reusable parts are removed and reused as used parts. Following the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's proper processing guidelines, liquids like gasoline and oil, as well as batteries, are removed before the vehicles are pressed. The remaining shredder dust is disposed of in landfills.
The background for establishing a new recycling law for end-of-life vehicles—which are almost entirely collected and have a relatively high recycling rate—is, of course, to clarify the responsibilities of manufacturers and disposers. However, the primary focus is on efficiently extracting valuable materials from shredder dust and promoting the effective use of the dust itself to reduce the final amount of waste.
■Among automakers, the Toyota Group, including Toyota Metal (Nagoya City) established in 1970 as a specialized end-of-life vehicle processing company, is at the forefront of material recycling for shredder dust.
Toyotsu Recycling, with distribution hubs nationwide, handles the collection and reuse of used parts. Recovered engine oil, hydraulic fluid/coolant (LLC), and windshield washer fluid are regenerated by Toyota Chemical Engineering through processes like adsorbent addition and distillation, then thermally recycled. Automotive catalysts are processed by catalyst recyclers, who recover precious metals like platinum and palladium for use as catalyst raw materials.
The body scrap, stripped of these components, is transported to Nodan Metal's older plant. There, it undergoes thorough separation into iron, aluminum, copper, glass, foam urethane, fibers, resin, rubber, and other materials through a combination of magnetic separation, manual sorting, air separation, and eddy current separation. The aluminum is fed into melting furnaces to produce ingots.
Current monthly scrap car processing volume is approximately 13,000 units. Initially limited to automobiles, the facility now also accepts home appliances and office equipment. The residual dust is ultimately melted and solidified, reducing landfill disposal volume to less than one-fifth of the conventional amount. Furthermore, the iron scrap is melted and forged in cupola furnaces alongside other iron scrap materials at companies like Aichi Steel and Daido Steel, being recycled into automotive parts and other products.
Toyota Motor Corporation is advancing the use of urethane as sound-absorbing material. Honda has also partnered with three major metal scrap companies—Sano Maruka Shoten (Fujinomiya City, Shizuoka Prefecture), Matec (Obihiro City, Hokkaido), and Nakayama Kinzoku (Hiroshima City)—to achieve efficient processing.
Utilizing each company's recycling technology, usable parts are reused after dismantling. The remainder is shredded to recover iron and non-ferrous metals. The resulting dust undergoes secondary and tertiary sorting. The final dust is further finely sorted, and combustible materials like plastics are solidified for reuse as fuel in cement kilns or as blast furnace reducing agents.
Only glass and sand remain as final residues, with a recycling rate target of over 85% since 2002. At West Japan Auto Recycling (Wakamatsu Ward, Kitakyushu City), which began operations in February 2000, parts are meticulously sorted by hand. Only the remaining scrap car glass is directly fed into steelmaking converters.
A key condition for direct feeding is keeping copper contamination below 0.1%. The process is handled by a mere six-person assembly line, taking 45 minutes per vehicle. With a monthly processing capacity of 1,000 vehicles, the effective recycling rate per vehicle exceeds 90%.
■As part of the Recycling Mine Bark (RMP) initiative promoted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, attention is focused on utilizing smelting technologies left behind at former mining sites.
Mikkaichi Recycling (Kurobe City, Toyama Prefecture) implements shredder dust recycling, recovering valuable metals through incineration. As a group company of Nippon Mining & Metals, it previously handled zinc smelting. However, due to vulnerability to zinc price fluctuations, it shifted its business to industrial waste incineration and valuable metal recovery utilizing its smelting technology.
Mikkaichi Recycling uses a rotary hearth furnace combining stoker and vertical cylinder types. After high-temperature combustion, incineration ash and fly ash are sintered and reduced to recover valuable metals. This process recovers approximately 20 tons of zinc and 20 tons of copper from shredder dust, achieving recovery rates of 90% for each.
For exhaust gas treatment, the company has introduced wet electrostatic precipitators and a neutralization process using lime, keeping dioxin emissions below regulatory standards. The company's efforts generate incineration residues with a smelting ratio of 30 to 40%. Most of this residue is reused at other smelters, with only a small portion landfilled at the company's managed final disposal site.
A key strength is the prefecture's guidance to demolition contractors to bring shredder dust, previously processed outside the prefecture, to the company. However, the effective utilization of resins and glass, currently barely recovered, remains a significant challenge. While high-calorific plastics could be thermally recycled, the labor-intensive sorting of automotive glass makes its recovery costly.
At dismantler Matec (Obihiro City, Hokkaido), plans are underway to introduce equipment that crushes glass, separates it from other materials, and processes it into raw material for glass wool. This material will be supplied to Nittoh Poto Higashi-Iwa (Ebetsu City), which holds approximately 25% of Hokkaido's glass wool market share. Through these initiatives, efforts continue to reuse valuable resources from end-of-life vehicles and reduce final disposal.
■Thermal recycling is an essential initiative for improving shredder dust recycling rates. To address this challenge, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) has undertaken a four-year plan starting in fiscal year 1996. This includes initiatives such as "Research on Decomposition Technology for End-of-Life Vehicles" and "Development of Shredder Dust Processing Technology and Its Verification via a Full-Scale Plant."
The technologies developed through this research have been widely disseminated to facilitate automobile recycling and provide technical support to the recycling industry. For example, in July 1997, a shredder dust reduction and solidification demonstration test facility was installed at the Japan Automotive Research Institute. This facility precisely separates dust by component, improves metal recovery rates, and solidifies combustible materials.
Furthermore, in June 1998, a dry distillation gasification demonstration test facility was completed. This facility converts shredder dust into solid fuel, recovers approximately 60% combustible gas through dry distillation, and recovers non-ferrous metals from the dry distillation residue. Ultimately, this process reduces shredder dust to one-third its weight and one-fifth its volume.
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. is focusing on thermal recycling and the re-commercialization of by-product slag. In collaboration with Kobe Steel, Ltd. and Nakadaya Co., Ltd., among others, Nissan is advancing research and development of direct melting treatment technology for shredder dust. A demonstration furnace has been constructed within Nissan's Oppama Plant. This high-temperature processing is designed to suppress dioxin emissions, and the resulting molten slag is planned for reuse in market-competitive products like tiles.
The processing cost target is less than ¥20,000 per ton. These efforts have led to a yearly improvement in automobile recycling rates. Furthermore, in Germany, regulations on end-of-life vehicle processing have been implemented, mandating manufacturers to collect end-of-life vehicles free of charge. In Japan too, the recyclability rate of new vehicles is improving through measures like LCA implementation, and the entire industry is advancing the establishment of integrated processing systems.