Recycle of car in Circular Economy Strategy of Toyota Tsusho
[Company / organization] Toyota Tsusho Corporation
Time started (or to be started)
Since the establishment of Toyota Metal Co., Ltd. in 1970 for the purpose of proper disposal / recycling promotion and spread of scrapped vehicles, we have created automobile-related recycling businesses in Japan and overseas, aiming for effective utilization of limited resources, ranging from automobile production process waste to used automobiles.
We will actively deploy the know-how cultivated so far in emerging countries with remarkable motorization, we will promote the construction of new recycling-oriented businesses in response to changes in automobiles due to electrification, etc., and contribute to the formation of a recycling-oriented society.
Technology and business model
As well as upstream areas of automotive product lifecycles such as parts procurement, knock-down, and sales, for a while now we have engaged in what are known as “venous” businesses—vehicle collection and dismantling, and resource recovery from automotive materials and parts. Indeed, Toyota Metal Co., Ltd., one of our group companies, has already achieved an automobile shredder residue (ASR) resource recovery rate of more than 99%. Turning an eye into the process of disposing of next-generation environmentally friendly vehicles, we started recovery and proper processing of used in-vehicle batteries. We are also focused on battery-tobattery resource recovery and expanding other battery utilization markets.
On the other hand, we are also working on the recycled aluminum molten metal business. Compared to the use of new aluminum metal, by supplying recycled aluminum secondary alloys to customers as liquids, we are able to reduce large amounts of energy consumption and lead to significant CO2 reduction effects. As a result, we have made a leap to the world's leading scale as a business that contributes to reducing the environmental burden of local communities.
Achievements and goals
As one of our KPIs, we have set a target of 7,700,000 tons for end of March, 2023 from the actual amount of 6,090,000 tons for end of March, 2020 in the resource recycling business.