Tokyo -- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., will begin recycling used automotive shredder residue (ASR) this fall at its Oppama Plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. Nissan will rebuild part of its waste incinerator for the purpose, marking the first time any carmaker has used existing incineration facilities at its own plant to process ASR.
The Automotive Recycling Law, which becomes effective in the latter half of 2004, will require carmakers to recycle ASR either on their own or through an outside recycling firm. According to Nissan, the company will continue to outsource ASR processing to an existing recycling company, but processing ASR at its own facilities will also allow Nissan to obtain data for study. Analysis of the data will be used to improve understanding of ASR processing, which could lead to reduced costs and better new vehicle design.
ASR consists primarily of plastic and rubber, and currently most of this residue ends up in landfills. Finding effective disposal methods other than burial is an important challenge. In addition, due to the heat generated by the thermal recycling process and the difficulty of regulating that heat, problems can occur with the adhesion and accumulation of burnt waste on the inside of the furnace and on the surface of boiler steam pipes. Nissan experimented with ASR recycling from 1997 to 1999 using a direct molten furnace, resolving a number of the problems that arise in the shredder residue recycling process.
The technology and know-how to be adopted by Nissan could be applied at other waste incinerators, and the carmaker is working to share its expertise. Moreover, rebuilding existing facilities is expected to require just one-twentieth of the investment that building new ones would require. A patent has been filed for this technology.
The processing of ASR at Oppama Plant was made possible by its Waste Zero Emission campaign, which significantly lowered the volume of waste created by the plant, freeing up the surplus furnace capacity required for recycling. The vapor generated by the process will be used for heating in the paint process and elsewhere, making the plant an energy conservation leader.
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Attachment: Nissan recycling efforts
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Type |
Action |
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Nissan environmental philosophy |
"Symbiosis of people, vehicles and nature" |
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Recycling principle |
Consistent effort throughout vehicle life cycle, from development to disposal |
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Organizations promoting recycling |
· August 1990: Recycling Promotion Committee (now the Recycling Committee) appointed |
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Recycling action plans |
· February 1998: Environmental Action Plan |
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Actions at vehicle development phase |
Recyclable ratio |
· Recyclable ratio of more than 90% from 2000 (since 1998 Sunny achieved this first, repeat for all models) |
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Reduction of environmentally harmful materials |
· Prohibited: Mercury and cadmium, with some exceptions |
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Actions by dealerships |
Environmental management system |
· All 236 dealerships certified under the Nissan Green Shop Dealer Certification System (March 2002) |
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Actions at the end-of-life disposal phase |
Supply of reusable parts |
· Completion of Nissan Green Parts nationwide supply network for reusable/rebuilt parts (October 2000) |
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Research and development of scrapping/appropriate processing |
· Experimental study at scrapped vehicle recycling test plant (from October 1997) |
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Materials recycling |
· Re-use of collected parts (four parts: Hyper-Mini electric car bumpers, instrument panels, air ducts, carpet) (2000) |
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ASR processing |
· Research on recycling shredder residue at experimental plant direct molten furnace (1997-1999) |
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