If you lift up a TV set, you will notice that only the screen side is heavy. It is because the glass for CRT is thick. About 60% of the weight of a TV set is from CRT, which is made of two different kinds of glass; the transparent panel glass on the surface and the funnel glass which contains lead in the back. The important point for recycling TVs is to take out these two kinds of glass leaving as little waste as possible. PETEC achieves a 98% recycling rate for CRTs.
Furthermore, besides CRTs, the metals and plastics used as components in TVs are delivered to specialist plants and then recycled.
Material composition of CRT TVs (as percent of total weight, units: %)
Source: Association for Electric Home Appliance material for 1982 products
Disassembling and Organizing Parts
Each TV is placed on the line and weighed, and then the power cord is removed. Disassembling of TVs is carried out completely by hand. One by one the operators remove parts using a screwdriver and take out components such as built-in speakers and the control board, then collect materials after sorting.
Dismantling TV
There are many electronic components in a TV set, and they are made of various materials such as metals, solders that contain lead, and plastics and so on. We sort them all and then pass them on to specialist plants.
Removing CRTs
We have to remove CRTs to prepare for separating the transparent panel glass on the surface from the funnel glass, which contains lead, in back. First, the support band at the attached part of the two kinds of glass is removed, and then dirt such as tape, adhesive stuck to the glass and black soot is carefully cleaned off manually.
Separating CRTs
A laser pointer is used to target the attached part between the panel glass and the funnel glass, and a glass cutter is used the scratch the line. After that, a nichrome wire wraps around the line and heats it up by passing a current through it. As a result, the difference in the thickness of the glass causes a distortion, and the glass breaks clearly in two. The purity of the recovered glass is 99.9% for both kinds. They can be used as the materials for CRTs in new TVs.
Processing and Shipping Panel Glass
First, we have to clean the panel glass by brushing and vacuuming impurities such as phosphor and evaporated aluminum film on the inner side of the panel glass. Then, the panel is broken up into 5 centimeter square-cut pieces (cullets) in the crushing room that has anti-vibration and soundproof equipment. Then, the cullets are shipped to CRT plants outside Japan.
Processing and Shipping Funnel Glass
Funnel glass is also sent into a crushing room that has anti-vibration and soundproof equipment, and then broken into 5 centimeters square-cut pieces (cullets) by the machine, which is different from the one used for crushing the panel glass. After that, the attached dirt on the cullets is removed, and they are shipped to CRT plants outside Japan.
TVs are recycled in this way and once again used as resources.
Air Conditioners contain various metals including iron, copper and aluminum. For example, the pipes that connect the indoor and outdoor unit are made of copper, and the sturdy compressor is made of iron. The heat exchanger, which conveys coldness or heat of the refrigerant to the air, is built of aluminum plate.
To recover highly pure materials efficiently, how precisely we can sort metals into iron, copper and aluminum is the important point. The recovered iron is used as a part of the compressor set in air conditioner. Copper and aluminum are also leveraged as materials.
Material composition of air conditioners (as percent of total weight, units: %)
Source: Association for Electric Home Appliance material for 1982 products
Removing HCFCs
First, we have to recover the refrigerant HCFCs. Then the HCFCs will be sealed to be sent to a specialist company. However, some older air conditioners cannot be processed on the regular line due to their plus-size. These will be moved to another location and carefully processed one by one. Also, the recovered HCFCs are sealed to prevent leakage and shipped to the specialist plant to be made non-toxic safely.
Dismantling Outdoor Unit
Outdoor air conditioning units are also dismantled by hand, and heat exchangers and compressors are removed. Since heat exchangers contain lots of copper and aluminum (also compressors contain lots of iron), we consider both pieces of equipment treasures of recyclable materials.
Dismantling Indoor Unit
The operators remove power cords, exterior covers, fan and inner parts manually. One of the most important pieces of equipment is the heat exchanger which contains a large amount of copper and aluminum. Operators put heat exchangers on the conveyer making sure not to mix them with other parts, and the heat exchangers will be sent to the specialist crushing machine.
Crushing and Sorting of Heat Exchanger
The heat exchangers removed from indoor and outdoor units are crushed into mixed metal fragments in the sealed crushing room. First, only iron is removed by magnet. Then, the mixed metals are separated into copper and iron by applying vibration due to the difference in specific gravity.
Crushing and Sorting of Compressor
Compressors are crushed into fragments in the specialist crushing machine. This is original technology developed at PETEC whereby the compressors are crushed at ordinary temperature. First, the iron is recovered from the metal fragments by magnetic force. Then, from the left-over fragments, we can recover copper and aluminum that repel the current by passing them through a machine called an "eddy current separator." After that, the fragments are passed once again under magnets not to overlook any small iron fragments. All these processes are conducted in the sealed crushing/sorting room in order to reduce noise levels.
Shipping the Removed Materials
The materials from the crushing/separating room come out by category. The iron extracted from compressors will be used as the casting material for new air conditioners. Also, aluminum and copper will be shipped to non-ferrous metal manufacturers and recycled.
In this way, air conditioners are recycled and once more leveraged as resources.
Large amounts of iron are used for refrigerator bodies. Also, besides iron, lots of metals such as copper and aluminum are used to construct other parts of refrigerators, which amount to 60% of the total weight of the product. These metals; iron, copper and aluminum are all reused as materials.
The next most used material is plastic. Other than the refrigerator's interior and trays, urethane foam used as insulation is fibrous plastic. Since CFC is used when forming urethane foam as insulation, we recover CFC in urethane foam properly so that the sealed CFC will be sent to the specialist plant to be made non-toxic.
Material composition of refrigerators (as percent of total weight, units: %)
Source: Association for Electric Home Appliance material for 1982 products
Dismantling and Organizing Plastic Parts
The operators remove power cords, and then take out the magnet on the door, trays and partitions inside by hand. This is when plastics, polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS), are separately put in the gondolas that move overhead. The gondolas will reach the specialist crushing machine for plastics. The plastics are crushed into granules and become raw materials.
Dismantling Compressor
When magnets on the door are removed in front of refrigerators, refrigerant fluorocarbons encapsulated in compressors are recovered in the back. The sealed fluorocarbons are shipped to a specialist company.
Development of Recycling Technology: an efficient fluorocarbons recovery needle.
Crushing Refrigerator
The refrigerator is put into the crusher. And when it is out, once again it passes through a machine that squashes and is transforms it into a lump of mixed metals and plastics. Also, the urethane foam, used as insulation, on iron plates of the cabinets is removed completely.
Sorting Iron and Urethane Foam
First, iron is recovered from mixed fragments of metals and plastics by magnetic force. Then, the light urethane foam is removed by wind force, crushed and compressed into a cylinder shape. This urethane foam is recycled as the material for insulation in home appliances and building materials. At the same time, CFC in urethane foam is recovered.
Sorting Aluminum and Copper
The fragments which do not contain iron and urethane foam are sorted into mixed metals and other fragments in the eddy current separator. The copper-aluminum mixed fragments are recovered due to the difference in specific gravity. These mixed fragments are shipped to a non-ferrous metal manufacturer as mixed metals and recycled. Then the plastic in the remaining fragments are recovered, and the others are disposed of as residue.
Shipping the Recovered Materials
Various kinds of materials such as metals and plastics come out from the crushing room by category. Casting parts and copper wires can be recovered from compressors. These are all sent to each manufacturer and recycled.
Refrigerators are recycled in this way and once again used as resources.
Although about half of the weight of a washing machine made up from iron, various other materials including copper, aluminum and plastics are used. The next most used material on a washing machine is plastic, which is difficult to sort. Once different kinds of plastics are mixed, they cannot be used as materials.
Therefore, how we sort them is the important point for recycling washing machines. Washing machines contain lots of polypropylene resins (PP), which float in water. At PETEC, we recover PP with 99.5% purity. The recovered PP is again leveraged as the material for the bottom plate of washing machines and washing tubs.
Material composition of washing machines (as percent of total weight; units: %)
Source: Association for Electric Home Appliance material for 1982 products
Before Dismantling
In order to calculate the amount of materials extracted from washing machines per day, each washing machine is weighed. Then, the power cord is removed and the washing machine is placed on the conveyer. In this process, operators check inside it to see if there is garbage or other electrical products.
Removing Salt Water
There is a piece of equipment called a balancer on the upper part of an automatic washing machine tub, and it contains highly concentrated salt water. The purpose of the salt water is to balance the washing tub so that it does not spin at a tilt. If the balancer with salt water is crushed, the recovered iron will rust. In order to prevent this, the salt water is removed in advance.
Crushing and Sorting Materials
The washing machine from which the salt water has been removed is carried to the crushing room and crushed into metal and plastic fragments. After that, light mixed plastics are blown off and sorted from heavy metals such as iron, aluminum and copper. These are processed in a room that is completely equipped with sound and vibration proof equipment.
Sorting Plastics
The fragments of mixed plastics are finely crushed and the dirt on them is removed. If they are placed in a water tub, only the light polypropylene (PP) floats (sink-float density separator). Moreover, the PP is granulated again to increase the purity, and they are placed in the equipment with convective water. Then, materials that are heavier than water sink, and only PP is isolated (eddy current separator, centrifugal density separator).
Shipping the Recovered Materials
Finally, the materials recovered from washing machines come out on the conveyer by category. The main ones are iron, mixed metals (aluminum and copper, etc.) and polypropylene (PP). Each of them is recovered at this point and shipped to manufacturers of materials.
Washing machines are recycled in this way and once again used as resources.
