COUNTRY REPORT
27recyclinginternational.com | January/February | 2021
LET’S DO PLANES, TOO
In the past decade, Nikkei-listed
Envipro has seen a rapid growth in its
wider recycling activities, boosted by
Japan’s ever stricter environmental
rules and the growing hunger for pre-
cious metals at home and across
South-East Asia’s emerging econo-
mies. Recently, the company has taken
up a new challenge: to establish an
infrastructure for aircraft recycling in
Japan operating under Envipro’s sub-
sidiary Econecol.
‘We are the first in the region. Outside
of China there are no scrapping facili-
ties for end-of-life commercial planes
in South-East Asia,’ explains
Tachibana, who is based in Envipro’s
overseas trade office in Newcastle,
UK.
COSTLY FAREWELL
In the past, most recycling of end-of-
life commercial aircraft from Japan,
Taiwan, Korea and other Asian coun-
tries was carried out in the USA, EU
and Australia, according to Tachibana.
‘Parking aged planes in US deserts is
a waste,’ he insists. ‘Airlines spend a
lot of money just returning the air-
craft. Getting back a redundant plane
alone can cost up to EUR 80 000 for
insurance, pilot fees, fuel and landing
rights. On top of that airlines have
had to wait a long time to receive the
final evaluation reports. So we
thought: organise proper dismantling
and recycling closer to home, saving
headaches and money.’
IN TIP-TOP CONDITION
Econecol became involved in the air-
craft business in 2019 when the com-
pany bought the Japanese govern-
ment’s aged ‘Airforce One’ and
‘Airforce Two’ Boeing 747-400s. ‘The
task was to resell rather than scrap
them,’ says Tachibana. ‘As you can
imagine these aircraft had been very
well maintained so it would have been
a waste to scrap them. We soon found
a new, happy owner.’
Meanwhile the company’s recycling
activities have taken off. The first seri-
ous ‘scrap’ job was a Gulfstream G-II
jet that was disassembled and cut into
pieces at Komaki Airport in central
Japan in October 2020, followed by
three Japanese Air Force transport
planes that were dismantled and
scrapped at the Iruma Air Base near
Tokyo.
FROM 10 TO 150… AND BEYOND
This is just the beginning. In 2021 busi-
ness is to ‘really get going’, says
Tachibana. ‘We plan to disassemble
and scrap at least 10 airplanes this
Fotobijschrift
KADERKOP
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Three Japanese Air Force C-1 transport aircraft were scrapped the Iruma Air Base near Tokyo.
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