April 18, 2003
The Law for the Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances (often referred to as the "Home Appliance Recycling Law") came into effect in April 2001. In the two years since that time, with regard to the designated four specified post-consumer use home appliances, namely air conditioners, television sets, refrigerators and washing machines, progress has been made with regard to proper disposal by consumers, collection from consumers by retail shops, collection by manufacturers at designated collection sites and recycling at recycling facilities.
While domestic shipment figures for the four designated kinds of home appliances were only 95% of the figure for FY2002, the number of units of the four specified kinds of home appliances recovered at designated collection sites increased by 19%. Insofar as one would expect that consumers typically discard old appliances when they buy new or improved appliances, an increase in the number of collected post-consumer use home appliances despite a decrease in shipments of new products suggests that the Home Appliance Recycling Law is in fact taking root through the understanding and support of consumers.
Current situation of appliance recovery
The number of post-consumer use home appliances recovered at designated collection sites nationwide totaled approximately 10.15 million units from April 2002 through March 2003, reflecting an increase of 19% compared with the previous year. Of this number, approximately 730 thousand units were collected in March 2003.
Current situation of home electric appliance recycling plants
Upon enforcement of this law, approximately 1,700 new employment opportunities were created in home appliance recycling plants, of which there are now forty nationwide.
Approximately 10.16 million units of the four kinds of post-consumer use electric appliances were brought into home appliance recycling plants from designated collection sites across Japan, reflecting an increase of 21% compared with the previous year. Of this number, approximately 700 thousand units were collected in March 2003.
Home appliance voucher system
The home appliance voucher system is operating smoothly. Consumers are able to know the status of the electric appliance which they took in for collection by accessing the web page of the Association for Electric Home Appliances (AEHA) (Available in Japanese. http://www.rkc.aeha.or.jp), utilizing a checking system which tracks the status of collected electric appliances.
[LINK]
| * | Number of Collected Home Appliances at Designated Collection Sites and Recycling Plants |
| * | (Japanese only) http://www.rkc.aeha.or.jp |