Japan targets precious and rare metals recovery

Japan – The Environment Ministry of Japan has drawn up a list of 45 compact home and electrical appliances – such as mobile phones and digital cameras – from which it plans to recover precious and rare metals. Under a system known as ‘urban mining’, municipalities will work with processing dealers and refiners to recover metals such as gold, silver, copper, zinc and palladium used in these devices.

According to the ministry, 284 000 tonnes of 14 kinds of recyclable metals – worth an estimated Yen 87.4 billion (US$ 1.14 billion) – are believed to be contained in 97 kinds of compact appliances that are thrown away every year. However, between 21% and 61% of discarded compact appliances are disposed of as non-burnable garbage; many of these end up in landfills.

Under the new system, municipalities will collect used compact appliances in co-operation with retailers, appliance makers, hauliers, intermediate processing dealers, refiners and members of the public. They will designate certain days for collecting them or set up containers for collection. Firms that commit to the recycling system for a certain period will receive permits to collect and transport such recyclable metals.

The 45 items were chosen after it was concluded that these could be profitably recycled without charging consumers. If 30% of the designated home appliances were to be collected nationwide, ‘urban mining’ would yield materials worth Yen 1.86 billion (US$ 24.3 million), according to ministry projections.