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About Toshiba > Social and Environmental Activities > Environmental Management > Eco Processes > Effective Use of Resources:
The goal of Toshiba Group is to reduce the total volume of waste generated by 24% (compared to the FY2000 level) by FY2012. In FY2008, the total volume of waste generated per unit production was 72% of the FY2000 level, a 28% reduction compared to the target of 23%. The absolute total volume of waste generated was decreased by about 3,500 tons from a year earlier. This is attributed to the effects of reduction in the volume of parts used through the improvement of the manufacturing and treatment processes, as well as those of promotion of waste reduction measures such as reducing products resulting from treatment. In addition, the effects of decrease in production due to the economic downturn affected the results of FY2008. Major waste includes sludge from semiconductor production sites, cinders resulting from power generation operations, and scrap metal, and Toshiba Group is striving to control the volume of waste generated by using creative ways and means to increase treatment efficiency. It is expected that the volume of waste generated will grow in the future as business expands as a result of economic recovery, but Toshiba Group will make efforts to reduce the total volume of waste by taking various measures on a continuous basis.
Toshiba Group aims to achieve zero waste emission (for its definition, see *5 on page 12) at all its bases by FY2010. In FY2008, the amount of final disposal was decreased by about 500 tons from a year earlier due to the thorough sorting of waste, the development of new uses for recycled waste, and other efforts. The final disposal rate was 5.9%, 0.2 percentage points lower than in the previous year. By business segment, companies related to social infrastructure systems accounted for about 80% of the final disposal amount, and stepping up efforts to reduce the amount of final disposal in this segment is an issue to be addressed. Characteristic waste of this segment includes cinders and cast sand resulting from the manufacture of large castings for power generators. Toshiba Group is taking such measures as recycling these types of waste into brick and roadbed materials and changing their properties by improving the treatment process so that they can be recycled and used as recycled materials, and will make these efforts on a continuous basis in the years to come. The ratio of sites that achieved zero emission in FY2008 was 51% compared to the goal of 60%. Particularly, overseas bases with underdeveloped recycling systems and infrastructures were slow in making progress in this area. In the future, Toshiba Group will continue its initiatives by, for example, further advancing activities that help identify and develop recyclers overseas chiefly through information exchange with local governments and business partners.
In FY2008, Toshiba Group recycled 251,000 tons of resources. The recycled resources consisted mainly of scrap metal, cinders, sludge, and waste paper, and 84% of them were used effectively for material recycling (recycled into materials for products), and the remaining 16% for thermal recycling (heat collection). In the future, Toshiba Group will continue to increase the total amount of resources recycled and at the same time will aim for higher quality recycling by, for example, increasing the percentage of materials recycled.
The hydroelectric power generation equipment manufacturing plant of Toshiba Hydro Power (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., based in Zhejiang Province, China, produces the world's largest castings, and huge volumes of waste cast sand are generated in the manufacturing process. Formerly, the company asked disposers to treat such sand as waste, but recently developed a system to sort it by particle diameter for reuse or for recycling it into bricks and roadbed materials. This was mainly accomplished with the guidance to disposers. This enabled the company to reduce the final disposal rate substantially, from 3.5% in FY2007 to 0.1% or less in FY2008, achieving what it defined as zero waste emission: reducing the rate to less than 0.5%.
The HARISON TOSHIBA LIGHTING Corp. has already enabled glasses to be recycled, through separation of the waste containing mercury of the cullet which is generated in the CCFL manufacturing processes for LCD backlight from the glasses. Previously, cullets on which mercury is deposited were subcontracted to industrial waste disposal dealers for transportation and disposal as mercury-tainted waste, although the corporation has reduced the amount of waste, such as that containing mercury, by 60% on average by sorting them out into mercury and glass cullets using its own equipment.
Separation and classification equipment manufactured in-house (It sorts waste into metal, glass and mercury.)
These two LCD panel manufacturing plants used to generate approx. 650 tons of waste per month, more than 40% of which was effluent discharged from manufacturing processes. Since waste developer, which accounted for more than 90% of the effluent, is strongly alkali, the treatment of effluent was costly. So, in order to reduce the amount of effluent, equipment that condenses effluent using vacuum and steam and reduces the volume of the effluent has been introduced. As a result, the amount of waste has been reduced 85% from 260 tons to 40 tons per month and the cost of treating effluent, which previously amounted to 8.5 million yen a month, has been reduced 7 million yen to 1.5 million yen a month.
This factory manufactures TVs. Packaging materials of delivered parts and components account for about 80% of waste generated and treatment of such waste is consigned to recycling companies after compressing and packing the waste.
Since the second half of fiscal 2005, in line with the shift from CRT TVs to flat panel displays, packaging materials have increased in terms of their types and the amount. The factory's waste compactor was suitable for only one type of packaging materials and other types of packaging materials could only be disposed of by means of landfill because the recycling companies require waste to be sorted, compressed and packed before they collect it. So, TIU introduced a new waste compactor capable of handling seven types of waste and with higher capacity (300kg/pack) than the previous waste compactor (50kg/pack), which meets the requirements of the recycling companies. As a result, disposal by means of landfill was minimized, the recycling rate increased from 54% to 82%, and the amount of waste disposed of by means of landfill was reduced by 2,846 tons. Also, enhanced loading efficiency due to compression has resulted in a reduction of the number of trucks used for transport. This translates into a 6,750-ton reduction in CO2 emissions.
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