Contribute to the development of a recycling-based society by transforming waste into resources for manufacturing
Natural resources are not limitless. We must reduce our impact on the environment by efficiently using and reusing these resources. As a trading company involved in manufacturing, the Toyota Tsusho Group considers it a vital mission to consider the environment and secure and stably provide resources.
To effectively use these limited resources, we will develop recycling businesses including recovery and processing of reusable resources from scrap generated from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) and at plants, secure resources through urban mining, and turn waste into resources such as by reusing used vehicles and parts, thereby contributing to a recycling society that promotes a circular economy by recycling waste.
KPI
Results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022
Target for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025
700thousand vehicles*
Target for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025
2 billion PET bottles
Target for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025
- *1Converted as raw material for vehicle underbody covers
- Development of products using sustainable materials derived from wood-based washi paper. Launch of the KAMITO Project
- Development of stockings made from recycled nylon and reduction in the use of plastic by Fukusuke Corporation
- Elimination of plastic packaging and switch to recycled materials
Japan is an industrialized country with high plastic production and consumption volumes. In 2019, Japan's Ministry of the Environment adopted the 3R+Renewable guidelines, a compilation of plastic resource recycling strategies. As a part of this effort, Toyota Tsusho is engaging in the plastic recycling business to contribute to the "recycle" portion of the program.
Toyota Tsusho established PLANIC Co., Ltd., which is one of Japan's largest recycled plastic processing companies, in December 2018, with operations scheduled to commence in 2022.
PLANIC will use Japan's first advanced gravity sorting technology to use end-of-life plastic materials that are currently not effectively used from cars, consumer electronics, and other items to manufacture high-quality recycled plastic. We also established Toyotsu PET Recycling Systems in July 2020 to recycle waste PET bottles.
This is also scheduled to commence in 2022.
Now that the automobile industry is said to have entered a once-in-a-century period of profound transformation, we must think about achieving a circular economy for next-generation automobiles. We are taking steps to apply the reverse-supply-chain framework we have been building to the life cycle of next-generation vehicles, as well.
We have built a "3Rs" (rebuild, reuse, recycle) framework for batteries and have been promoting its lateral deployment to reuse batteries in various applications that match their remaining capacity. In addition to onboard batteries, we have also been conducting demonstration tests to reuse Toyota Hybrid System (THS) units, especially their motors, in unmanned industrial machines such as agricultural sprayers and weed cutters. We began these tests at a vineyard in Hokkaido in November 2020, with the goal of commercialization in several years.
