| Design for Recycling |
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| We implement product design that makes the recycling of materials easy. |
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| Why is the reuse of raw materials pursued? |
 Prevention of resource exhaustion |
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Past oil crises taught us an important lesson - that the Earth's resources are finite and will be exhausted some day if we continue to consume them. Most plastics are derived from petroleum. It is important to promote the recycling of these plastics, as this directly contributes to preventing a drain on petroleum resources. We continue to implement design for recycling that allows plastic parts to be recycled and reused.
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| Reuse as materials |
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Recycling of plastics can be carried out through "material recycling" that reuses plastics as resin, "chemical recycling" that produces chemical raw materials, and "thermal recycling" that turns plastic into fuel. Plastics have the longest life cycle when reused as resin. This use also prevents a drain on resources and produces fewer environmental impacts than incineration or disposal in landfill.
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| Commitments for Toshiba PC |
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We implement product design that uses recycled materials for PCs, adopt materials that are easy to recycle, and promote materials recycling.
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| Promotion of use of recycled materials for the PC case |
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We promote the use of materials recycled from various products used in the market.
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| Ex. Recycling plastic materials |
We are accustomed to using recycled material in our daily life. When it comes to a Toshiba PC, reworked plastics are used as some parts of the PC case.
PC parts that use recycled materials
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| Promotion of material recycling by adopting a magnesium alloy case |
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There is a limit to the use of plastics in the manufacture ultra-thin PC cases. Sustained rigidity means thicker plastics. Magnesium alloy, on the other hand, has the advantages of plastic's light weight plus inherent rigidity. As it is a metal, recycling is not an issue.
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| Magnesium Alloy Case |
We began using a magnesium alloy case in 1996, when we succeeded in manufacturing a PC case of only 0.7mm thickness.
Magnesium alloy is as light as plastic with the rigidity of metal, so it can be used for ultra-thin cases and easily reprocessed. It is also suitable for recycling. However, manufacture of PCs using magnesium alloy requires advanced die-casting technologies and various secondary manufacturing processes, and the manufacturing cost cannot equal that of plastics. For the time being, we will use magnesium for PCs with a slim design concept.
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| Indication of raw materials |
Plastics is a general term for polymers that can be processed and molded into different forms with heat and pressure. Strong, light plastics are widely used in manufacturing, including for PC cases.
However, there are difficulties in treating plastics as waste materials.
For example:
- The type of plastic cannot be specified simply by looking at it, so analysis at the time of disposal can be difficult.
- Plastics differ by processing method, and when they are mixed they are difficult to recycle.
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| Indication of raw materials |
Foreseeing such difficulties early on, Toshiba PCs has indicated raw materials of plastic components that are used for PC cases since June 1994.
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