Waste Reduction and Recycling
Waste reduction is an important issue in terms of both preserving the global environment and alleviating the burden on incinerators and other waste disposal facilities.
Our philosophy is, “Minimize waste generation, maximize recycling of wastes that are generated, andproperly dispose of wastes that cannot be recycled.” In accordance with this philosophy, every TELGroup plant reduces the amount of waste it generates and sorts wastes to facilitate recycling.

■ Total Waste Volume
In fiscal year 1999, we started keeping a tally of the amount of waste generated by our non-manufacturing facilities in addition to our manufacturing plants. At manufacturing plants and researchfacilities, waste volume grew in tandem with a substantial rise in production and capacity utilization. In fiscal year 1999, the TEL Group’s total waste volume increased on a year-over-year basis.
For reference, the graph below includes fiscal year 1996 data for certain manufacturing plants.

Waste volume
Basic unit(%)
250

Trend in Waste Volume(ton)
9,000

8,072.4

8,000

7,109.3

7,000
6,000
5,000

6,347.1
5,001.6

Waste volume
Basic unit = —Sales(FY1997 = 100%)

200
150

4,000100

3,0002,00050

1,00000

FY96

FY97

FY98

FY99

■ Breakdown of Waste Volume
Liquid wastes (including liquids classified as specially controlled industrial wastes) account forsome 48.6% of waste volume, followed in order by paper, scrap metal/product, and plastic waste.
All liquid wastes that cannot be disposed of in-house are collected and properly disposed of byoutside contractors.
Breakdown of TEL Group’s FY1999 Waste Volume

Breakdown of FY1999 Waste Volume by Location

Total waste volume 7,109.3 tGlass, beverage containers,
Other
packaging materials,
incinerated ash
9.9%
2.8%

Paper
13.6%

Ozu
5.4%
Plastic
8.0%
Scrap metal/product12.1%

Liquid waste
27.2%

Scrap wood
3.4%

Specially controlled
liquid waste
Cafeteria garbage
21.4%
1.6%

Tokyo ElectronFuchu
3.8%

Koshi
3.2%

Miyagi0.7%
Hosaka26.4%

Yokohama
5.7%
Sagami
9.0%

Saga
13.9%

Tohoku
9.1%
Fujii
9.6%

Environmental Report 2000

Kumamoto
13.2%

■ Recycling
We mainly recycle paper, beverage containers,
scrap wood, glass, plastic waste, and metal. Overthe past four years, the TEL Group’s aggregate recycling rate progressively increased from 15.3% to40.9%, 49.7%, and 55.3%, respectively.

(%)
10090

TEL Group Recycling Rate

80
70
55.3

60
50

40.9

49.7

4030
20

15.3

100

FY96

FY97

FY98

FY99

■ Examples of Recycling Programs at Offices
At the Akasaka Headquarters and Fuchu Technology Center, we are now recycling even confidential documents that were previously shredded or incinerated. To do so, we have teamed up with arecycling contractor to implement a box shuttling system that maintains complete confidentiality.

■ SortingSorting is essential for recycling to work. At every plant, we collect wastes sorted by their physicalproperties into 26–46 different classifications.

Waste storage facility (Tohoku Plant)■ Supervision of Waste Treatment Plants and Contractors
At each of our facilities, we certify and oversee contractors that handle interim treatment and final
disposal of wastes. Before contracting with a new contractor for waste disposal services, we conduct
a certification check, including verification of its license status and on-site inspection of its facilities. We thus make sure that the contractor has the capability to properly and lawfully process
and/or dispose of our wastes. Even after a contractor is certified, we conduct periodic on-site inspections to ascertain the status of its operations.

Tokyo Electron

Environmental Report 2000