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KATO, Japan (AFP) – Seeking to turn an environmental problem into an economic opportunity,
high-tech companies in resource-poor Japan are mining mountains of toxic e-waste for precious
materials.
One model project, the sprawling Panasonic Eco Technology
Centre, sits in lush rice fields an hour's drive outside of Osaka
city.
Inside, workers and humming machines disassemble flat-panel
televisions, refrigerators and air
conditioners, sorting their metal and plastic components
into boxes for recycling.
About 90 percent of dismantled parts are reused in one way or
another, says Yutaka Maehara, a manager at the plant.
Among the most precious parts are metals such as copper that are
becoming more expensive on the world market, while the plant also
isolates toxic components such as heavy metals and dangerous
gases.
The plant aims to leave a minimal environmental footprint and to
be a good neighbour in its quaint rural setting.
"In the beginning residents here had some concerns," said
Panasonic spokeswoman Kyoko Ishii. "But as you see, we've been
operating the plant without polluting the water and the rice is
growing without problems."
Japan has come a long way since the 1950s, 60s and 70s when it
emerged at breakneck speed as Asia's economic
engine room, boosting living standards but often at a devastating
environmental cost.
The skies over Tokyo, Yokohama and other industrial centres then
were often choked with pollution, in the way those over parts of
China are today, while waterways darkened
with industrial
effluent.
Since then Japan has tightened many emission
standards and other safeguards and launched in 2001 a
recycling system that separates paper, glass and aluminium cans
from household rubbish that can be incinerated.
Today people who want to dispose of electronic
appliances have to pay an average of 28 dollars for a
washing machine, 32 dollars for a TV set and
54 dollars for a fridge, according to the industry ministry.
The volume of garbage dumped in landfills every year has shrunk
to roughly one third of 1990 levels.
Used mobile phone handsets and digital
cameras are now often called 'city mines' for the precious metals they contain, such as gold, silver
and copper.
The government recently launched a campaign to encourage
cellphone users to return their old handsets to mobile phone
companies for recycling.
One pioneer in Japan has been camera maker Canon, which started
recycling toner cartridges from its printers about 20 years ago and
now reuses 90 percent of the components of its photocopiers.
"Our system is closed loop recycling, which means used parts
from our products are used again in our products," said Tomonori
Iwashita, the executive officer in charge of Canon's environmental
policy.
"Because we are a corporate entity, we don't make recycling
efforts unless it is useful for our business. If you can recycle
cheaply and reduce the burden on the environment then that's good
for your business too."
But despite manufacturers' efforts to go green, some disposal
companies still dump dangerous materials, said Tetsuya Sekiguchi,
an activist who has joined several residents' lawsuits against
waste landfills.
"I've been working on the problems of garbage pollution for
decades, but the situation of illegal dumping has not improved a
bit as there are few conscientious recycling companies," he
said.
Another challenge is "the impact of economic globalisation on
the recycling industry," said Yuichi Moriguchi, head of the waste
and recycling research centre at the National Institute for
Environmental Studies.
"Asian countries, led by China, are
absorbing Japanese waste materials and thereby causing a shortage
of materials for the Japanese recycling industry" which has the
most sophisticated technologies, Moriguchi said.
Because of very basic and dangerous extraction methods -- for
example by burning the plastic off metal parts in the open -- waste
from Japan often causes health and environmental
problems in other Asian countries, he said.
"We need to build an international system of recycling" so that
Japan's technologies can be fully utilised, Moriguchi said.
In the long term, he said, "it's important to seek materials
made from sustainable resources,
such as plants, with less energy and less pollution ... because
relying on limited resources such as petroleum will bring trouble
in the future".
Canon and synthetic fibre maker Toray Industries Inc. have
jointly developed a high quality plastic made from corn, which has
been used in keyboards and components of its office machines.
"Even though it is made from corn, its fire resistance is about
the same as that of conventional plastic," Iwashita said.
To expand research into sustainable materials, he said, Canon
needs other companies, including major materials manufacturers, to
come on board.
"We can't do it alone," he said. "We have to work as a wider
group."