Recycling Awareness
Today, the basic concepts of recycling are widely known. However, at the time of Honda’s founding, when Japanese industry was moving from postwar reconstruction into its period of rapid economic growth (1955 – 73), awareness of the need to reuse resources was still poor. However, Honda had already begun its initial recycling efforts in 1957, not long after the company was founded, when Takeo Fujisawa returned from an inspection trip to Europe and made the statement: “Reduce the amount of paper and ink we use.”
In Germany, for example, workers at one of the factories Fujisawa visited laid things out in neat rows so that the number of items could be easily counted at a glance. He noted that there was also nothing piled up on office desks, shelves were organized, and documents were stored in specified locations. Because of this, people didn’t have to carry around a load of documents, and could find virtually any information by simply looking in common shelves, which was a truly efficient way of working.
Honda was thus one of the first Japanese companies to introduce a filing system into its administrative department, believing that it should emulate this sort of approach. Basically, poor organization inevitably leads to time wasted searching for things. Organizing things on the production floor means that attention is paid to even the smallest part or drop of oil, which invariably leads to higher quality. Efficient work leads to more efficient use of resources and by extension lower costs, which in turn leads to better quality products at lower prices for customers. Honda’s later recycling efforts were merely based on the “work methods” of its predecessors. Fundamentally, the act of recycling came down to the elimination of waste and maximizing the effective use of resources.
Once Materials Are Brought Into a Factory,
They Should Never Leave Again Unless Turned Into Products
As noted above, Honda has been engaged in various recycling activities since its early days: In 1958, Soichiro Honda himself issued an order: “once materials are brought into a factory, they should never leave again unless turned into products,” Honda began crushing and melting down aluminum cuttings at its Yamato Plant (later Saitama factory’s Wako Plant ) foundry and reusing this “refuse” as new material. When the Suzuka Plant was opened in 1963, an aluminum shavings compressor was installed as a way to recycle the scrap aluminum generated at the foundry. Also, in 1973, Saitama factory’s Wako Plant tested out reusing the paint chips (that stick to painting machines and jigs, etc.) generated in the painting process as sound insulation inside the doors of its TN360 light trucks. Unfortunately, this attempt had to be dropped when it was found that the paint’s odor couldn’t be completely eliminated.
The company’s efforts during its founding period not only saved resources during a time of material shortages, but also helped minimize waste, which played a significant role in reducing costs to its customers. By extension, the concept of “customer satisfaction,” as symbolized by the “Three Joys” (that of Buying, Selling, and Creating) - a key company slogan since its founding - was also linked to the preservation of the environment.
Together with changes in Japan’s industrial structure brought about by its rapid economic growth, the concentration of its population in urban areas and rapid improvements in lifestyles, the country was also experiencing an exponential increase in the amount of trash and waste that was being produced. The resulting pollution became a major social problem in the late 1960s and 1970s, and companies were loudly being called upon to take greater responsibility for the local environment. Around this time, Honda was also developing several recycling initiatives that emphasized greater harmony within the local community. One of the most prominent initiatives of the time was “groundwater conservation”, and Honda’s efforts here included the development of a water recycling system in order to reduce the volume of wastewater associated with its painting process.
Around 1970, Japanese companies were getting most of the water they used in industry from wells located on their premises, and Honda was no exception. For example, the groundwater then being used at its Sayama Plant was exceeding 10,000 tons per day. At the time, there were no legal restrictions on its use, so the groundwater was basically considered free and unlimited. However, in the words of Soichiro Honda, “Water belongs to everyone.” Because of this, Honda developed and began employing a water circulation system that continuously recycled the water as it was used. Ultra-filters, like those used in racing batteries, were adapted to filter wastewater for reuse in the painting process, which tended to be the most water-intensive operation in the plant. This system was installed at a cost of 300 million yen; a massive investment for the time. As of 2023, the system uses far more water than was used in the 1970s, however approximately 98% of the water used in its factories is recycled.
In 1977, as just one of the “zero emissions” activities derived from its efforts to conserve water resources, Honda’s Suzuka Plant introduced a “closed loop” plating system that involved the recovery of nickel and chrome from the plating process. In this system, all of the harmful liquid waste from the plating process was collected together and then separated by an outside specialist company, which recovered the nickel and chrome for reuse. Further proof that Honda has been actively addressing the root causes of the pollution problem from its early days.
Electrodeposition paint recovery system that realizes circulated water use. (Previously, water from both first and second washing was also drained.)
Cradle to Cradle
It wasn’t until the late 1980s that the term “recycling” came to be widely known in Japan as an important issue for global environmental preservation. Since that time, the country has faced an acute shortage of waste disposal sites, and urgent measures have been required to dispose of waste generated by factories and to recycle vehicles at the end of their useful life (“shredder dust” disposal).
In November of 1990, Honda launched a “Recycling Committee” with the aim of taking comprehensive steps toward addressing recycling issues and to better ensure the most effective use and reuse of resources. Parallel to this, the years 1990 to 1991 also saw the Japanese government start to take concrete action on recycling issues.
Under the slogan “From Cradle to Cradle Again,” the Recycling Committee set specific themes and goals for operations at every stage of a vehicle’s life cycle with the ultimate aim of developing effective initiatives within the social system.
These themes covered the entire lifecycle of a car: from recycling at the development stage (e.g. increasing the amount of easily recyclable materials used, and conversion), to recycling at the manufacturing stage (e.g. improving yield and material separation technologies), and finally to recycling at the sales stage (e.g. collecting and recycling used parts). This thinking made it possible to more effectively respond to the needs of the market in a timely manner.
In May of 1993, Honda announced its Voluntary Plan, which set specific goals for recycling and other activities aimed at reducing the amount of waste generated in Production by 50 % of 1991 levels no later than 1996. Remarkably, through the coordinated efforts of the Recycling Committee and the Environmental Promotion Committee, this goal was achieved by the end of 1995, a year ahead of schedule. In 1996, Honda’s “bumper-to-bumper” recycling technology, which had been an ongoing effort since the start of the Recycling Committee, was finally perfected. After producing a variety of results, the Recycling Committee was dissolved in December 1996, and Honda moved on to the next step.
Total bumper recycling network with established collection routes and recycling network covering the entire country.
Looking back on Honda’s bumper recycling business, what began as one of the Recycling Committee’s first research projects and is still vigorously being pursued in 2023 - 75 years after the company’s founding - has made Honda a leader in the industry.
When Honda launched its Recycling Committee, its focus was on the collection and reuse of used or damaged car parts, starting with the body parts that dealers and repair shops often had a difficult time disposing of. One typical example was the plastic bumpers used in passenger cars, which were simply replaced or discarded after being damaged in accidents. At the time, other car companies used urethane bumpers. However, since 1983, Honda had consistently used only thermoplastic resin (polypropylene), which is easy to recycle. Unfortunately, there was no system in Japan - nor anywhere else in the world - to collect used bumpers for recycling, and efforts made to create this system from scratch turned out to be a continuous process of trial and error.
One of the main difficulties in recycling is keeping costs low. In the case of used bumper recycling, more than half of the recycling costs are related to recovery. If the cost is too high, then it becomes extremely difficult to recycle, so a major problem was figuring out ways to improve efficiency in the recovery process.
As Parts Department Logistics Manager Thomas Burger noted at the time, “Basically, people throw things away because it’s cheaper. That’s why recycling is invariably so difficult. We’re trying to change this trend, however it still costs a lot to recover and recycle. The challenge is keeping these costs low, and if costs are incurred, who bears them in the end?”
E-BOX, a parts delivery box made of recycled materials from collected bumpers
In June 1991, Honda began test collection of bumpers, which led to full-scale collection began in October of the same year, starting in the Kanto and Koshinetsu regions. Honda took three basic avenues of used parts collection: dedicated delivery, parts returns, and home delivery, with air or sea shipments occasional used for remote islands. This collection area was gradually expanded as the number of recyclers increased, and by November 1995, a nationwide collection network had been established, covering all of Japan, including distant Okinawa Prefecture. This was the largest - and first - recycling network in Japanese automotive history, and attracted the attention of everyone concerned.
Honda’s ultimate goal in its recycling efforts was “cradle to cradle.” In other words, its goal was to achieve a pattern of “from bumpers to bumpers again.” However, due to the small volume of bumpers collected at the start, and the fact that such characteristics as the durability of recycled base materials had not yet been determined, the first materials recycled from the collected bumpers were turned into boxes, which became known as E-Boxes, and were used to ship various parts to the Parts delivery. Since cardboard boxes had been used in the past, by extension this also led to better conservation of forest resources and a significant reduction in waste. Then, as the volume of collected materials began to increase, durability tests were conducted by R&D’s Material Research Department, and efforts were made to recycle mass-produced parts for use in its cars.
At the time, carmakers were still having a great deal of difficulty recycling painted bumpers. One problem was that if the painted bumpers were shredded and recycled “as is,” it would be difficult to maintain the required impact resistance in any “new” bumpers that contained this recycled material. Another problem was that using chemicals to remove the paint would logically raise concerns about secondary pollution.
At the time, Honda’s research team determined that the following three issues needed to be addressed: 1) visual salability, 2) impact resistance, and 3) paint adhesion, all of which would be important considerations when manufacturing bumpers using painted materials in the recycling. For instance, in regards to impact resistance, which is critically important in bumpers, it was found that adding more polyethylene to the recycled material could help in maintaining optimum durability. As a result, it was found that adding an appropriate amount of HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) could provide virtually the same impact resistance as current mass-produced bumper material. Furthermore, “bumper-to-bumper” recycling technology that used 100% recycled materials was also being developed.
Recycled bumpers made by sandwich molding
In order to keep up the visual salability of the bumpers, a sandwich-style molding process was used to effectively sandwich a core layer of recycled bumper material between two layers of virgin (new) material. The higher volume of the recycled material significantly helped lower overall costs. Since Honda did not have such a sandwich molding machine on hand, bumpers for Today and Prelude models were test-molded with the cooperation of the Gunma Showa Molding Company in Gunma Prefecture. On February 27, 1996, Honda created its first verifiable, mass-produced recycled bumpers. It took a bit of time to find the optimum injection conditions, but for maximum cost effectiveness, a 30/70 mix of recycled to virgin material proved to be the ideal ratio. The 290 new bumpers produced that day were then shipped to market as repair parts.
Sandwich molding method in which recycled material from the recovered bumpers is sandwiched between virgin material layers.
One member of the development team, Osamu Aoki, who was then in charge of the Fourth Research Block at Tochigi R&D, recalled that “the bumper recycling process we undertook allowed us to use recovered bumpers as recycled material without removing the paint. This, of course, helped with environmental issues in that it didn’t generate waste, consume energy in removing the paint, or use chemicals that could lead to secondary pollution. These recycled bumpers also proved to be competitive both in terms of cost and salability. This development turned out to be one of the major pillars of R&D’s bumper strategy, and we hoped to take it to the next step.”
From 1991 to 1996, a total of over 550,000 used bumpers (2,200 tons) were collected, and in 1998 an average monthly volume of 50 – 60 tons of used bumpers were reused in various Honda car parts. This helped lock in a self-contained recycling system that was based on a collection network that extended to all 47 prefectures throughout Japan, including its most remote islands. The voluntary participation of Honda‘s car dealerships also resulted in the highest collection rate in Japan’s automotive industry, and eventually spread to other companies, where similar attempts were made.
Major Obstacles to Bumper Recycling
Since then, Honda has continued to make progress in its bumper recycling efforts, beginning in 1998 with the use of recycled materials in mass-produced bumpers, as well as the steady progress made in creating unpainted bumpers from 100% recycled bumper material.
However, some major obstacles were still encountered along the way. The first involved the need to separate the collected materials. The bumper materials they were able to collect included a mix of G5 (commonly referred to as “old”) materials and G6 (or “new”) materials. Also, the job was made more difficult and time-consuming by the need to separate old and new materials, without which quality control couldn’t be maintained.
On the collection side, another barrier for the dealers was the higher price they had to pay, relative to ordinary collection companies, to haul away the old bumpers, especially since they were basically considered waste products. Many dealers preferred using companies that could simply cart away the bumpers like trash, rather than have to pay more to have them taken in for recycling, not to mention all the extra paperwork involved, which made it difficult to collect bumpers based on price alone.
Naturally, this led to increased costs, so Honda began by collecting used and damaged bumpers from dealerships located close to the recycling companies it hired. Both the collection area and the volume were gradually expanded as efforts were made to reduce the cost to dealers by minimizing transportation expenses as much as possible. As worldwide interest in recycling grew, the number of dealers cooperating in Honda’s collection system continued to increase, while the person in charge of the project foresaw a time when they would see a shortage in the number of bumpers to collect, just as was experienced in the recycling of PET bottles.
As work continued, and the waste materials were diligently collected and sorted, they soon faced an insurmountable obstacle coming from within: the cost of transporting, sorting, and recycling the material was naturally higher than that of virgin plastic. For this reason, Production suddenly decided against using recycled materials in their planning stage. This meant that all the collected recycled materials would end up as costly inventory. In August of 2018, Hideki Hashimoto, who was then general manager of the Resource Recycling Promotion Department’s Customer First Operations, and had taken on responsibility for the Recycling Department, was suddenly faced with the decision to sell the company’s growing stock of recycled materials to an outside vendor.
Hashimoto recalled that, “While it might be fine to sell to an outside company, it’s not really a business anymore if decisions are arbitrarily made to use or not use recycled materials, depending on the circumstances. If the collected materials are sold to an outside company, then you can’t really say that this is Honda’s recycling business. The reality is that recycling is always in danger of disappearing if decisions are suddenly made to ‘rationalize’ a department without fully understanding the recycling business.”
In the end, the problem was caused by the lack of overarching decision-making, which was partially due to the walls created by divisional sales management. In short, it was only natural that the Purchasing division, which manages the cost of the materials used, the Dealer division, which manages collection and transportation costs, and the Parts division would each make their own decisions, and would likely conclude that it was cheaper - and thus better - not to use recycled materials, strictly from the standpoint of cost. It simply wasn’t possible to make up a deficit in one division with a surplus in another.
It was at this time that Kimiyoshi Teratani, who was then Chief Officer, Regional Operations (Japan),remarked at a plenary session, “I guess there’s no way to stop this.” He then agreed to absorb the costs of collection and transportation then shouldered by the Dealer and Parts divisions. As a result, the overall cost of recycled materials was suddenly brought down to only the cost of the processing, which finally made it competitive with virgin materials. However, the volume of recyclable materials collected still remained unstable because it depended on the rate at which parts were replaced, which caused the cost of recycled materials to fluctuate widely. Because of this, there was always a possibility that virgin material would prove to be more cost-effective. Furthermore, the company had to constantly keep tabs on the cost of its recycled materials.
Once, Hashimoto was asked, “Are you going to stop, then? If not, and you’re planning on continuing, then please explain why.” Although no significant cost reductions could be expected, no matter how hard they tried, in the end he was happy that he didn’t just give up and call it quits. It was only because the people in the recycling department continued without letting up that they were able to stand firm. What kept them going was the strong belief, passed down through the recycling department, that recycling is indispensable when the global scale of the environment is taken into consideration. Also, behind-the-scenes advice coming from retired Honda employees proved to be a much-needed source of support.
Honda has a strange “jinx” in that if you find yourself struggling, but still stand firm and battle it out, someone will invariably appear out of nowhere to help. In this bumper recycling project, it was Teratani who became the “savior.” With a growing awareness of the damage being done to the environment, he provided the needed perspective that this was the right thing to do. With this kind of backing, Honda’s recycling business managed to continue.
The Challenge of Becoming “Usable” Again
“Triple Action to ZERO” action guidelines for a recycling-oriented society with zero environmental impact
In April of 2021, Honda debuted its new in-house slogan, “Triple Action to ZERO,” as a means of conveying its efforts in environmental initiatives. Honda also declared that it would further advance its efforts toward achieving ZERO environmental impact. As just one initiative, Honda declared that it would achieve 100% use of sustainable materials by 2050, and develop products using sustainable resources that essentially have no impact on the environment. Aiming to achieve zero environmental impact, from the initial procurement stage to the final disposal stage, Honda launched a company-wide initiative to promote efforts in cooperation and collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders.
In the area of recycling, the company launched an initiative to use recycled materials obtained from bumpers in the manufacture of under covers, which quickly resulted in a shortage of recyclable materials. On top of this, Honda made it a point to not only focus on easily recyclable materials such as bumpers, but also utilize the wide variety of plastics and other materials that make up the interior. As of 2023, these materials are disposed of as “shredder dust.”
Also, as Honda has long excelled in its extensive recycling efforts, another “silver lining” has been found in the recycling of its bumpers. As noted earlier, recycled bumpers, which are processed without removing applied paint, contain fine grains of the paint coat that can sparkle when exposed to light. Not only does it sparkle, but even if covered again with another coat of paint, slight irregularities inevitably appear. Because of this, it couldn’t be used as a surface material in visible exterior parts. This was the main reason why the Development department kept saying, “We can’t use it.”
However, a young designer came forward saying, “I’d definitely like to try using these recycled materials for the most visible parts of the bumper, and without paint.” This designer said that the glittery look of unpainted recycled material had a nice texture. This unique point of view was hard to believe coming from someone involved in recycling for a long time.
It was then decided that recycled bumper material would be used to form the central part of the bumpers... without painting, and the material would be used in several new models to be introduced in after 2024.
Both the world and Honda have become dramatically more conscious of the environment. We hope the time will come when the use of recycled materials will become the norm. Whatever happens, Honda will continue in its passionate commitment to recycling.
Recycled bumpers collected are used as the Freed’s under cover.
