Fiscal Year 2023 Home Appliance Recycling "Recycled Product Rate" Hits Record High

Regarding the four types of discarded home appliances (air conditioners, refrigerators/freezers, washing machines/clothes dryers, and televisions) collected under the Home Appliance Recycling Law, manufacturers and others are processing them for recycling at home appliance recycling plants nationwide. According to recent statistics compiled by the Japan Electrical Appliances Manufacturers Association [Location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Chairman: Hideki Osumi (President & CEO, Hitachi Global Life Solutions, Inc.)], the "recycled product rate" – an indicator of how much of the total processed weight is recycled back into materials – reached 88% in fiscal year 2023, a new record high.

The Home Appliance Recycling Law was fully implemented in 2001, marking the start of material recycling at home appliance recycling plants, as a measure to address issues such as the depletion of landfill sites and the effective utilization of resources. At the time of its launch, the recycled product rate was 66%. Back then, the primary recycling targets were metals, partly due to immature sorting technologies for plastics.

Since then, the recycled product rate has increased with advancements in technology, such as the evolution of methods for sorting and collecting high-purity materials on a large scale from mixed plastics, in addition to the existing method of visually inspecting and manually dismantling single plastic materials for collection.

Furthermore, on a per-item basis, although the recycling standards set by the Home Appliance Recycling Law have been raised several times in the past, actual performance has consistently exceeded these standards due to the ingenuity of stakeholders and the progress in recycling technologies.

Trend in Total Recycled Product Processing Weight, Recycled Weight, and Recycled Product Rate for 4 Types of Discarded Home Appliances

Trend in Recycled Product Rate by Item Type

※1 Recycled Product Rate

The proportion of weight that has been recycled (material recycling) out of the four types of discarded home appliances processed for recycling.

This does not include the weight of materials that have undergone thermal recycling.

Detailed results for this matter are scheduled to be published on the Japan Electrical Appliances Manufacturers Association website as an e-book version of the "FY2023 Home Appliance Recycling Annual Report."

(The latest version is scheduled to be published from July 1st.)

URL: https://www.aeha-kadenrecycle.com/effort/#report

【Contact Information for Inquiries】

Japan Electrical Appliances Manufacturers Association, Public Relations Department, Miyoshi, Shibata

TEL: 03-6741-5602 E-mail: koho@aeha.or.jp

【Japan Electrical Appliances Manufacturers Association】https://aeha.or.jp/

The Japan Electrical Appliances Manufacturers Association comprehensively addresses various issues common to home appliances, which are an integral part of people's daily lives and are constantly evolving. These issues include improving the safety of diverse home appliances, enhancing after-sales services, dealing with discarded home appliances closely related to environmental problems, and promoting energy and resource conservation. The association conducts research, studies, and policy planning and implementation.