CASE STUDY

Mitsubishi's "urban mines" - recycling for production

Mitsubishi Naoshima smelter

Mitsubishi has used its smelting and refining infrastructure to increase Japan’s low domestic supply of raw materials while greatly increasing recycled content of their products and reducing waste to landfill. They have achieved this through “urban mining”, or recycling.

Mitsubishi has concentrated efforts on so-called “urban mines” (metals such as steel and aluminium processed from recycling of product such as cars and electrical appliances) to meet their demand for metal resources.

Japan is heavily dependent on imports to support the domestic industry’s demand for raw materials. While it lacks mineral resources, Japan has extensive manufacturing industries including electronics and aviation that fuel that demand.  

Mitsubishi has developed green productivity management (GPM), which commits the company to a range of activities in relation to recycling. These include energy and resource conservation, reduced amounts of waste and toxic substances, waste recovery, and expansion of the waste treatment business.

Eco-efficiency benefits  

Mitsubishi have also focused on reporting on their efforts to increase the recycled content of their materials. This data reflects the eco-efficiency indicator of recycled content per tonne of product produced and Mitsubishi has presented the data in their Corporate Social Responsibility report, disaggregated by their different operations.

The chart below shows how Mitsubishi is measuring eco-efficiency performance. It illustrates that over half the aluminium sold by Mitsubishi comes from recovered and recycled drinks cans.

They currently report increases in recycled content in their material production in various facilities including their Naoshima Smelter and Refinery, which processes recycled shredder dust and fly ash, as well as efforts to recycle metals from household appliances.

Often these efforts result in decreased energy and associated GHG emissions when compared to traditional production of the material, thus further enhancing the eco-efficiency of their metal products.

Mitsubishi eco-efficiency performance

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CASE STUDY DETAILS

Published
27 June 2008
Company
Mitsubishi Materials Corporation
Location
Asia

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Principle 04:

Implement risk management strategies based on valid data and sound science.

Principle 08:

Facilitate and encourage responsible product design, use, re-use, recycling and disposal of our products

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