Sony is continually improving the resource productivity of its business processes in order to ensure that the resources are used effectively. It also understands the importance of recovering and reusing the resources of end-of-life products. As a manufacturer, Sony recognizes its social responsibility for ensuring the appropriate disposal and treatment of end-of-life products. Sony is promoting the collection and recycling of end-of-life products, complying with the legislative requirements of each country as well as region worldwide which include the Home Appliance Recycling Law in Japan, the EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (the WEEE Directive) in Europe and the Electronic Waste Recycling Act in the state of California.
In Sony's Green Management 2010 the targets related to product recycling includes a requirement to continuously increase the resource recovery volume of end-of-life products and also a requirement to continuously improve the reused/recycle ratio of end-of-life products. The reused/recycled ratio refers to the percentage of resource recovered, by weight, to the weight of products shipped during that year, which not only promotes recycling but also ensures the efficient use of recovered resources. In order to achieve these targets, Sony is implementing product collection programs and developing as well as adopting new recycling technologies. Furthermore, to facilitate the increase in the resource recovery volume of end-of-life products, Sony is incorporating considerations to recycling at the stage of product development and design.
In fiscal 2008, Sony recovered 91,000 tons*1 of resources from end-of-life products which includes the televisions and personal computers collected from Japanese consumers equating to a reuse/recycling ratio*2 of approximately 58%.
