Product Recycling

In fiscal 2009, Panasonic Eco Technology Center Co., Ltd. (PETEC), which serves as a recycling facility for Panasonic, recycled approximately 750,000 units which belong to the four home appliance categories.

As for PETEC, shredder dust from discarded refrigerators, which accounted for as much as 15% of the total weight of refrigerators (for fiscal 2008), represented a big challenge in resource recovery. In response, the company developed a technology to recycle shredder dust (limited to mixed resin in which the content of PVC and metal is 1.0% or less and 0.5% or less, respectively) into artificial wood and other construction materials.

Through the combined use of existing separation technologies, PETEC can now treat 1,200 kg of mixed resin per hour by the dry method without using water, and can recycle 94% of shredder dust (mixed resin of PP, polystyrene, and ABS) as resources. For this technology, PETEC received “the Chief´s Award of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry” from Clean Japan Center Foundation.