Product Recycling Activities in Japan

Targets and Achievements in Stage VI of the Environmental Protection Program

The target was to sustain 90% resource reuse rate^*1 of business ICT equipment globally at Fujitsu recycling centers, and in FY 2010 the achievement was 93.3% (90.6% within Japan and 96.3% overseas).

*1 The ratio of the amount (by weight) of recycled parts and resources to the amount of end-of-life business ICT products processed.

Promoting Product Recycling in Japan

As an enterprise with official designation for wide-area industrial waste disposal in Japan, Fujitsu engages in various kinds of contracts for accepting industrial waste for appropriate processing.

We have established Fujitsu recycling centers throughout Japan to create a nationwide recycling system. This system provides for rigorous traceability and security, and achieves a high resource reuse rate. By providing this safe and secure service, we are fully discharging our Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).

Fujitsu Recycling Centers throughout Japan

Achievements in Collecting and Recycling End-of-Life ICT Products

Although the volume of materials collected is declining due to progress in miniaturization and reduced product weights, we processed 6,406 tons of recycled ICT products from corporate customers in FY 2010, and achieved a resource reuse rate of 90.6%. Also, we have now collected a total of 74,231 end-of-life PCs from individual customers.

Providing Product Recycling Information

In order to properly dispose of end-of-life ICT products, since fiscal 2004 Fujitsu has been operating a digital management system for its products disassembly manual.

Through this system, Fujitsu recycling centers can download from our in-Group website, as animated disassembly manuals all the information they need to recycle products. In addition to providing a downloadable products disassembly manual, the system provides instructions on how to deal with items containing restricted chemical substances and plastic materials, and with products that contain customer data.

Promoting Recycling

Experienced workers carefully disassemble collected products by hand and separate the materials into categories such as steel, copper, aluminum, precious metals, glass and 20 different types of plastic. They also strive to raise their manual disassembly standards through the use of animated disassembly manuals.
Materials recognition equipment has been introduced for plastics that are difficult to discriminate, so as to allow the complete segregation of different types of plastic.

In addition to minimizing the quantity of waste materials in this way, we are continually trying to turn them back into resources that can be reused to make products. To keep our customers informed of these initiatives, we distribute ballpoint pens and clear folders made from recycled plastic at exhibitions and other events, as well as demonstrating PCs being manually disassembled.

Developing a Traceability System

We developed an integrated recycling information management system and since fiscal 2007 have adopted it at the Fujitsu recycling centers.

This system prevents theft and illegal dumping by attaching barcodes to customers' ICT products and managing data on the history of the recycling process from acceptance at the recycling center through disassembly and destruction of the hard disks on a percustomer basis.

Operation of Security Systems

A high level of security is maintained at Fujitsu Recycling Centers by using infrared cameras to monitor automatically for intruders and check the storage status of the accepted products.

• Product Recycling
  • Product Recycling Activities in Japan
  • Disposal of Waste IT Equipments
  • Information for Treatment Facilities