Revised Law Requires Recycling of Additional Home Appliances

An amendment to the Law for the Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances was approved by the Japanese cabinet on December 2, 2008, requiring liquid-crystal/plasma television sets and clothing dryers to be recycled. This comes on top of the four appliances for which recycling is already mandatory: air conditioners, tube television sets, refrigerators and washing machines. With the amendment, required recycling rates have also been raised.

The revision was made in response to a report by a council that has been assessing and reviewing the system since 2006, when five years had elapsed since the law's enforcement. According to the revision, consumers must discard liquid-crystal/plasma television sets and clothing dryers through a retailer by paying recycling fees, just as they dispose of the four appliances specified by the original law.

Accompanying this amendment, the required rates of recycling were raised from 60 to 70 percent for air conditioners, 50 to 60 percent for refrigerators, and 50 to 65 percent for washing machines. The rate for newly-added liquid-crystal/plasma television sets was set at 50 percent and at 65 percent for clothing dryers.

The new regulation was enforced on April 1, 2009.

Home Appliance Recycling Rate in FY2005 Exceeds Minimum Requirement for 5th Straight Year (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/026413.html
Home Appliance Recycling Law
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/kaden_recycle/en_cha/en_cha.html

Posted: 2009/06/03 06:00:15 AM