The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of Environment (MOE) will set up a new incentive program to collect plastics and glass from end- of-life-vehicles (ELVs). This will help reduce the automobile shredding residue (ASR) while promoting resource recycling.
Depending on the collected amount, incentives will be provided to automotive recyclers that participated in the resource collection. The ministries plan to conduct a verification test with selected automotive recyclers this fiscal year.
Currently, the collection of plastics and glasses from ELVs is not mandatory. In October 2021, the two ministries conducted a meeting to discuss automotive recycling.
According to the details of this meeting, less than 30% of dismantlers (70 companies of a total of 262) have reported that they collect plastics and glass from ELVs. However, more than 90% of shredding operators reported that they did not select and collect plastics from ELVs. The dismantlers and shredding operator stated that ‘cost’ was the primary reason for not collecting.
Expanding resource recycling within Japan is an urgent issue, because China, the largest importer of used plastics, has stopped importing these materials. Further, the capacity of ASR recycling in Japanese domestic facilities is tightening.
Therefore, the government is planning to create an incentive program, which will be funded by the automobile recycling fees paid by car users. METI and MOE will announce a draft of the detailed guidelines regarding the incentive program within this fiscal year.
By providing economical merit to recyclers, the ministries aim to help reduce the collection cost and increase the amount of collected resources.
Source: Jara News – July 2022
