Nissan recovered 112,507.2 tons of the 115,741.4 tons of automobile shredder residue (ASR) collected from 533,836 vehicles in Japan in fiscal year 2013 — an amount that represents a recovery ratio of 97.2 percent — according to the automaker.
This means Nissan has achieved the Japan Automobile Recycling law ASR recovery target rate of 70 percent by FY2015 for eight consecutive years.
In its other recycling results achieved between April 2013 to March 2014, Nissan says the recovery ratio for end-of-life (ELV) vehicles (actual value) was 99.5 percent. The company also reduced the amount of ASR-related landfill and incineration disposal to zero and and participated in a trial of recycling ASR, with an advanced method of sorting ASR and process them as resources.
Nissan recovered 1,603,679 airbag-related products from 445,635 vehicles through recovery processing and on-board deployment operations. The airbag recycling ratio was 94.1 percent, exceeding the legal requirement of 85 percent. A total of 138,602.149 kg of fluorocarbons collected from 490,825 vehicles was processed.
The cost of the recycling efforts for these specified materials amounted to 5,400,091,730 yen ($52,677,895). Recycling fees and income generated from the fund for vehicle recycling totaled 6,286,540,805 yen ($61,325,206), contributing to a net surplus of 886,449,075 yen ($8,647,311).
From FY2004 to FY2013, the total cost of recycling operations led to a net surplus of 2,987,067,988 yen ($29,138,848), an amount that is equivalent to 560 yen ($5) per vehicle. For the mid- and long-term forecast, Nissan anticipates the cost of recycling operations to stabilize.
Consistent with the Nissan Green Program 2016, the company’s mid-term environmental plan, Nissan says it will continue efforts to improve its ELV recycling actions.
With active utilization of ASR recycling facilities, Nissan continued to achieve zero ASR-related disposals to landfill and incineration since FY2012. The company says it will continue to work toward achieving an ASR recovery ratio of 100 percent.
US facilities are now allowed to recycle plastics separated from automobile shredder residue, according to the EPA’s 2013 interpretation of existing regulations.
The interpretation permits recycling plastic scrap containing levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) less than 50 parts per million. The EPA banned the manufacturing, sale and distribution of PCB products in US in 1979 because of the health and environmental hazards that these chemicals can cause. The EPA still permits PCBs in what it calls “totally enclosed” uses, such as transformers and capacitors.