All 14 Yamaha Group National Production Plants Achieve Zero Emission of Waste Materials

In addition to the six Japan-based production plants that achieved zero emission* status in May 2005, Yamaha Corporation managed to achieve zero emission status in eight Yamaha Group production plants in Japan by the end of March 2008.

The Yamaha Group makes a wide range of products including acoustic instruments, electric instruments, audio equipment, telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, car parts, and housing equipment and devices. This means that a wide range of raw materials are used throughout the production process, and many kinds of waste materials are produced. However, we have been working to reduce the amount of waste emissions produced and to recycle used products. In addition, due to a lack of area to use for landfill, there is a need to effectively recycle waste materials that had previously been disposed of, and to reduce the amount of waste products that make it into landfill. The Yamaha Group defines zero emission as “final waste products are less than 1% of product output.” The Yamaha Corporation began working on this project in 2003, and in 2005 it expanded to include other companies within the Yamaha Group, which began to actively promote this program. Confirmation of documents was carried out smoothly, and all production plants managed to achieve zero emissions by March 2008, as per the original goal.
As a result, the proportion of waste emissions to overall output was slashed from 14.7% in 2002, before the project was started, to 0.06% in 2007.
We have included an outline below.

Yamaha Metanix Corporation (Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan; manufacturing and sales of electric metal materials and processed goods), which was handed over to Dowa Metaltech Co., Ltd. on November 30, 2007, also achieved zero emissions in June 2006.

1. Thorough Sorting of Waste Materials and Usage of Information on the Recycling of Materials

Waste materials are managed based on thorough sorting at the time of emission.
Furthermore, while waste materials are dealt with at each individual plant, general meetings are also held regularly to exchange information between plants on the recycling of those materials. These exchanges have helped to raise both the awareness of the people at each site, and the large amount of previously disposed product being recycled.

2. Suitable Disposal and Consignment, and the Tightening of Management

The disposal and consignment of materials to waste companies is performed after well-planned checks of the site by the entire group. Before entering a new contract and starting a new consignment, the company’s site is evaluated, along with periodic checks of the sites of companies with whom we have contracts, to ascertain the conditions under which materials are being disposed. We have also managed to tighten management of waste disposal to ensure more suitable disposal methods by introducing a system to consolidate information.

In future, along with continuing our zero emissions initiative, we will work on promoting the preservation of precious resources through thorough sorting, the containment of emissions through effective production practices, and the improvement in quality of the recycling of materials.