51
Although we don’t have a detailed breakdown of the recycled metals for mobile
phones, we have statistics for small electric appliances including mobile phones.
We summarize these as follows for 2015 fiscal year (April 2015–March 2016)
(Table 3.5).
Table 3.6 shows that the recycling and processing of Electronic-waste from small
appliances, personal computers, and mobile phones give potentially significant
amounts of valuable metals. This observation recently prompted the Tokyo
Organising Committee of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games to decide that
Olympic medals for winners of the Tokyo games are to be made of metals distilled
from mobile phones and called for the local governments and the local post offices
in Japan to collect them for recycling.
Table 3.5 Electronic waste and recycled appliances
Panel A: Yields (metals, plastics, etc.) derived from collected small appliances
Item
Weight (tons)
Total small electric appliances collected
57,260
Metals recycled after processing
36,567
a
Recycled plastics
2550
Incinerated plastics
13,612
Reused appliances
149
Residuals
4298
Panel B: The estimated amounts of electronic-waste generated by small appliances
Item
Number of
recycled units
Weight (tons)
Electric shaver, jar, electric pots, and others
61,368,572
185,179
Mobile phones, phones, and others
47,842,169
16,053
Speaker (automobile), digital camera, DVD
90,400,559
132,750
PC, printer, monitor and others
22,868,114
140,290
Bulbs, electric lighting equipment
795,062,951
110,055
Camera
91,057
37
Clock
82,431,127
12,384
Desktop game machine, portable game machine
13,223,334
12,916
Electric calculator, digital dictionary
10,273,500
1129
Electronic thermometer, sphygmomanometer etc.
22,229,256
20,576
Electronic keyboard, electric guitar, etc.
1,089,299
4459
The handheld game machine, and mobile toys
1,128,449
186
Electric drill and others
6,633,000
14,100
AC adapter, controller and others
2,109,710
427
Total
1,156,751,096
650,539
Source: compiled by the authors using information for public use from the Japanese Ministry of
Environment (2012)
a
Breakdown of various metals collected out of the total recycled metals in tons:
iron
26,326;
stainless steel and brass
148;
aluminum
2023;
gold, silver and palladium
2798;
copper
1469;
other metals
6573.
3 An Economic Assessment of Present and Future Electronic-Waste Streams: Japan’s…
Although we don’t have a detailed breakdown of the recycled metals for mobile
phones, we have statistics for small electric appliances including mobile phones.
We summarize these as follows for 2015 fiscal year (April 2015–March 2016)
(Table 3.5).
Table 3.6 shows that the recycling and processing of Electronic-waste from small
appliances, personal computers, and mobile phones give potentially significant
amounts of valuable metals. This observation recently prompted the Tokyo
Organising Committee of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games to decide that
Olympic medals for winners of the Tokyo games are to be made of metals distilled
from mobile phones and called for the local governments and the local post offices
in Japan to collect them for recycling.
Table 3.5 Electronic waste and recycled appliances
Panel A: Yields (metals, plastics, etc.) derived from collected small appliances
Item
Weight (tons)
Total small electric appliances collected
57,260
Metals recycled after processing
36,567
a
Recycled plastics
2550
Incinerated plastics
13,612
Reused appliances
149
Residuals
4298
Panel B: The estimated amounts of electronic-waste generated by small appliances
Item
Number of
recycled units
Weight (tons)
Electric shaver, jar, electric pots, and others
61,368,572
185,179
Mobile phones, phones, and others
47,842,169
16,053
Speaker (automobile), digital camera, DVD
90,400,559
132,750
PC, printer, monitor and others
22,868,114
140,290
Bulbs, electric lighting equipment
795,062,951
110,055
Camera
91,057
37
Clock
82,431,127
12,384
Desktop game machine, portable game machine
13,223,334
12,916
Electric calculator, digital dictionary
10,273,500
1129
Electronic thermometer, sphygmomanometer etc.
22,229,256
20,576
Electronic keyboard, electric guitar, etc.
1,089,299
4459
The handheld game machine, and mobile toys
1,128,449
186
Electric drill and others
6,633,000
14,100
AC adapter, controller and others
2,109,710
427
Total
1,156,751,096
650,539
Source: compiled by the authors using information for public use from the Japanese Ministry of
Environment (2012)
a
Breakdown of various metals collected out of the total recycled metals in tons:
iron
26,326;
stainless steel and brass
148;
aluminum
2023;
gold, silver and palladium
2798;
copper
1469;
other metals
6573.
3 An Economic Assessment of Present and Future Electronic-Waste Streams: Japan’s…