With regard to used household PCs, compared to the four home electronics categories, such as televisions and refrigerators, the mass of waste from PCs is small, and new businesses are showing signs of sprouting, such as with the expansion of the secondhand market.

In considering the development of a mechanism which reflects these conditions, it was thought promoting a mechanism based on the “Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources” would be appropriate. This is because, by developing a mechanism which allows for business diversity and flexibility for related businesses to promote various projects, it could be thought to link to even more efficient recycling.

These are businesses which manufacture PCs and businesses which sell PCs they have imported. Businesses which sell so-called shop brand PCs, namely PCs they have assembled from purchased components, fall under the category of manufacturing and other businesses.

Since manufacturing and other businesses decide on product plans and specifications, and select their own source materials, they are in the best position to most appropriately and efficiently recycle those used products which they manufactured. Similarly, import retailers are in a good position to select products which can best be recycled. Based on the perspective of the extended producer responsibility, businesses which have been designed to recycle according to the Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources, must establish collection centers (hereafter referred to as “designated collection points”), recover used and discarded PCs from households, and they must recycle the collected products using appropriate techniques which accord to the Waste Management and Public Cleaning Law and other related laws, so as not to cause obstruction to the safeguarding of living conditions.

Further, what is sought is a comprehensive examination of a highly effective collection and recycling mechanism, which considers the conditions of consumers discarding the PCs, and which is extremely convenient for consumers, as well as the implementation of the mechanism such that it functions effectively.
What is hoped for is a mechanism which strives to improves recycling efficiency and to reduce the cost of recycling through the implements an easy-to-recycle design and the selection of materials, etc.

If facilitation in the collection and recycling of a manufacturer’s products is deemed necessary, guidance and advice can be given to the manufacturing or other business, taking into account judgment criteria regulations.

If these actions of collecting and recycling by the manufacturing or other business are deemed to be significantly insufficient, in view of the judgment criteria regulations, the competent minister can issue a caution describing the grounds for that judgment; and if the manufacturing or other business does not conform to that caution, such an announcement can be made publicly.

In the event the manufacturing or other business still does not conform to the caution, without reasonable cause, even after the public announcement, and if it is deemed to be considerably detrimental to the collection and recycling of the business’s products, then the competent minister can seek the opinion of the Industrial Structure Council and Central Environment Council, and can issue an order for action to be taken against the manufacturing or other business such as cautioned. In the event the order is defied, a penalty of up to 500,000 yen can be imposed.

Manufacturing or other businesses which are subject to cautioning etc are those businesses for which the number of manufactured PCs, or the number of imported PCs sold is at least 10,000 items in one business year.

Retail stores sell PCs, and from the perspective that they have the closest link with consumers who are likely to discard PCs when they buy a new one, it is hoped that they will carry out publicity activities on recycling PCs aimed at consumers in order to raise efficiency in implementing the program.

PCs have a high ratio of being taken home when purchased and so deliveries are low for retail stores, and they have a product characteristic which is that in the majority of cases, accumulated data needs to be transferred, which means that the time a new PC is purchased is different to the time the used PC is discarded. Unlike the four home electrical categories, it is unlikely that the retail store will become the main route for collection of discarded PCs at times of new sales. And, unlike the Home Appliance Recycling Law, retail stores are not obliged to accept PCs.

The treatment of used household PCs at local governments is determined based on each local government’s general waste management program. They will cooperate with manufacturers’ independent activities, and from the viewpoint of improving the effectiveness of collection and recycling, they will examine cooperative mechanisms as much as they can.

In particular, from the viewpoint of having as close a link as possible with residents who will discard used household PCs, a local government must carry out publicity activities targeted at residents, including properly discarding their PCs and not illegally dumping them, in order for the collection and recycling mechanism to function effectively in the implementation of the program.

It would appear that local governments, which capture the understanding of their residents, should set a reasonable collection fee which promotes the discarding of PCs along the route of collection by manufacturers based on manufacturers’ levels of recycling fees.

It is hope that consumers will both properly discard used PCs which they had used at home, and will cooperate in promoting the collection and recycling, by handing over their used PCs to the manufacturer and paying the collection and recycling fee.

Since October 1, 2003, when the judgment criteria regulations were enforced, newly sold PCs would collect a collection and recycling fee included in the product price at time of sale, and the relevant PCs would be handed over free of charge when being discarded. PCs which were sold prior to the judgment criteria regulations were enforced (so-called existing products), would be recovered with the collection of a collection and recycling fee at the time of discarding.

In the ministerial regulations stipulating the terms of the criteria when assessing the collection and recycling of used PCs by the entity conducting the manufacturing or other business related to those PCs, when a manufacturing or other business collects their products, they will recycle those items into a state which can be used as reusable components or resources, or outsource another party to do so.

The recycling of used PCs discarded from households came into force on October 1, 2003. Also, the recycling of used PCs discarded from businesses became effective earlier, on April 1, 2001.