Background, Aim and Scope
The Home Appliance Recycling Law (hereunder referred to as the Law) for used cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs, air conditioners,
refrigerators and washing machines was enacted in April 2001 in Japan. The Law requires that retailers reclaim, and manufacturers
and importers recycle such home appliances. Consumers are required to pay collection and recycling fees incurred in disposing
of any of the four home appliances. Home appliances must, as a general rule, be managed in accordance with the Law. In reality,
other routes exist, such as via local authorities, scrap processors, illegal dumping and exporting. At about the time the
Law was enacted, the refrigerant used for air conditioners and refrigerators was replaced by more environmentally friendly
substances such as isobutene. Local authorities had the responsibility of disposing of the appliances of households before
the enactment of the Law. It was general practice for local authorities to dispose of home appliances in landfills after breaking
them up and recovering valuable resources such as iron, copper and aluminum. Although they made efforts to recover refrigerant
fluorocarbons, there were not required to do so.
Materials and Methods
This study analyzed the material flow resulting from the Law and other processing flows to quantify the global warming effect
caused by home appliance recycling using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. To evaluate the Law and to develop policy
planning, the challenges of future efforts will be considered using time series data. For these reasons, we have assessed
the Project Scenario, which corresponded to the present reality; the Baseline Scenario, which assumed that measures such as
the Law were not implemented after 2000, and the Ideal Scenario, where all used products were recycled as prescribed by the
Law. The environmental impacts for each scenario were estimated using value, which was obtained from multiplying the amount
of reproduction and waste treatment by each inventory data.
Results
It is estimated that emission reductions of 4.7E+4 t CO
2e, subtracted the Project Scenario from the Baseline Scenario, were reduced for TVs in 2001 through recycling. The impact
from recycling glass from cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions is significant. An improvement of 2.3E+4 t CO
2e could be anticipated by upgrading to the Ideal Scenario in 2001.
It was estimated that there was a reduction of 9.2E+5 t CO2e in 2001 for air conditioners. Although the effect of the recovery for refrigerants contributed greatly, some fluorocarbons
that are still discharged have had a considerable impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Hypothetically, a reduction of 3.2E+6
t CO2e could be anticipated with the Ideal Scenario in 2001.
A reduction of 2.6E+6 t CO2e was achieved for refrigerators in 2001. Although a further reduction can be anticipated through the Ideal Scenario, there
will not be much difference with the Project Scenario by 2010.
It was estimated that 3.8E+4 t CO2e were reduced for washing machines in 2001. Only a small improvement can be expected through the Ideal Scenario.
Discussion
Since many assumptions were used in this study, a sensitivity analysis was carried out in order to grasp their impact. The
findings of the sensitivity analysis are that the uncertainties are large, but the number of the greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions
is still clear except for the difference between the Project Scenario and the Ideal Scenario for TVs. This analysis gives
authenticity to the findings.
Conclusions
Establishing a system for liquid crystal display and plasma display panel TVs is desirable because the absolute amount of
used LCD/PDP TVs will rapidly increase as the usage of CRT TVs rapidly decreases from 2007.
With regard to refrigerant recovery from air conditioners, a significant decrease in GHG emissions has been recorded. There
is, however, still ample room for improvement. It will be necessary to switch to refrigerants with low global warming potentials
(GWPs) or work more on improving the recovery rate in the future. Alternatives and recovery of fluorocarbons from refrigerators
contributed greatly to GHG reductions. The GHG emissions from refrigerator recycling will be minimal whether used refrigerator
will be processed legally or not because most used refrigerators will contain natural refrigerants in the near future. The
improvement for washing machines was low because it was assumed that their main constituent steel has been previously recycled,
and that the plastic recycling rate will not change significantly in the future. An improvement in the recycling technology
itself is required. This study was carried out on four home appliance products, and it was found that the Home Appliance Recycling
Law has brought significant reductions in GHG emissions. There is also room to make GHG reductions through improving the processing
methods further.
Recommendations and Perspectives
The impact on GHG emissions by fluorocarbons of air conditioners and refrigerators is the greatest. Adequate measures are
particularly required for air conditioners that may continue to discharge GHGs in the future.
Keywords Air conditioner - green house gases - home appliance - LCA(Life Cycle Assessment) - policy evaluation - policy planning - recycling, refrigerator - televisions - time series data - washing machine
ESS-Submission Editor: Dr. Lindita Bushi (lindita.bushi@ghgm.com)