Recycling. The Current Problem of Shredder Dust Derived from Automobiles and Home Electric Appliances. New system for dealing with shredder dust in the western part of Japan.

It has recently become necessary to develop a system for dealing with the large amounts of shredder dust generated declining abandoned automobiles and home electric appliances because of landfill space nationwide and stringent regulations on leachate control. In 1992, about 1.2 million tonnes of shredders containing an estimated 36 thousand tonnes of copper, 3.6 thousand tonnes of lead, 6 thousand tonnes of zinc and 5, 400 Gcal were derived from automobiles. The shredders from home electric appliance disposal accounted for 230 thousand tonnes containing 22 thousand tonnes of copper. The amounts of shredder dust has been estimated to increase to 1.37 million tonnes by 2000, and to 1.56 million tonnes by 2005.A new project, the Recycle Mine Park (RMP) has been proposed to solve the problems of increasing amounts of automobile and home electric appliance scrap. The RMP uses technology to recover energy and metals. Since methods have been developed to recover energy and various kinds of metals including in base and hazardous metals, the largest problem of the project remains establishment of reasonable and economical system. About 30% of the shredder dust described above is generated in the western part of Japan.Smelters are located on the coast of the Inland Sea of Seto in this area, which reduces the cost of transportion. The recycing network in the western part of Japan excluding pretreatment combines the best features of being in the vicinity of a large amount of shredder dust, marine transportion and the presence of modern smelters. Pretreatment such as incineration or cracking which is additional treatment for the smelter feed is proved in small scale.Wehope that the unique system for recycing of shredder dust including collection, pretreatment, marine transportation and smeltering can be put into operation as soon as possible. The increasing costof suitable land for landfills, the stringent regulations on leachate control, and other costs makethis an attractive system.