Tsuneishi Corporation, a shipbuilder headquartered in Numakuma-cho, Hiroshima, and Sojitz Corporation, a major Japanese trading company, announced late last year that they have jointly launched an auto recycling business. Japan for Sustainability reports that besides end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) from conventional sources, the companies will accept automobiles that have been illegally abandoned, something that has been a serious problem for communities on remote islands in the Seto Inland Sea.

Through Tsuneishi CRS Corporation, which they jointly established on the premises of Tuneishi Corp., the companies will cooperate with car dealers, auto maintenance/body shops, life insurance companies in the Chugoku and Shikoku regions of western Japan, and accept their ELVs. They plan to use Tsuneishi‘‘s marine transportation system to carry abandoned vehicles from the islands to the facility.

Tsuneishi CRS has adopted a complete recycling system, with a recycling rate of almost 100 percent. After removing chlorofluorocarbons (used in air conditioners), resalable automobile parts are removed and stored, then metals such as iron, aluminum and copper are separated out, and the remaining scrap materials are compressed in a press at the end of the process. Through improvements in dismantling technology, ELV scrap can be used as-is in electric furnaces as sources of heat and metal. Unlike current mainstream shredding methods, the system is notable for not generating any shredder residue.

The recycling facility started operations in November 2004 with a capacity of 14,400 vehicles per year. In its second year, the company plans to recycle 10,800 vehicles , or 75 percent of its capacity, and aims for about 500 million yen (US$4.5 million) in revenues.