Product Recycling

We recognize that greater resource productivity is vital if society is to curb its excessive resource depletion. Recycling allows us to turn wastes into resources again. Panasonic is committed to actively fulfilling its responsibility in this recycling system.

In 2001, the Japanese government enacted the Law for Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances, applicable to the four particular product categories. In response, Panasonic has built a geographically dispersed recycling network through the effective use of the existing recycling facilities nationwide. Ecology Net Co., Ltd., established mainly by Panasonic, totally manages and operates the recycling scheme, including 190 designated collection sites and 35 recycling facilities, on behalf of participating manufacturers in the same group which concluded contracts. In fiscal 2008 Panasonic Eco Technology Center Co., Ltd.(PETEC) recycled approximately 670,000 units. Recycling technologies and the data obtained by PETEC are shared by the recycling facilities of the Group.

As a result of our recycling activities in fiscal 2008 (April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008) based on the Law for Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances, 2.29 million of our products across four types of specified home appliances were recycled at our recycling facilities nationwide, an increase over 3% from fiscal 2007. The weight of recycled products was around 72,000 tons, an increase of 6% over fiscal 2007. The recycling rate rose by 2 points over the previous fiscal year, due to the increased plastic recovery rate.

Overview of Recycling for Specified Home Appliances

Panasonic has been promoting a recycling initiative for business PCs in Japan for many years. In October 2003, Panasonic voluntarily expanded this marking initiative to all our consumer PCs as well, so as to further encourage proper recycling.

Based on our Notebook recycling schemes operating in North America, Europe and Japan, this means that Panasonic offer recycling solutions covering 95% of the entire Group's global sales volume of computers. Panasonic has recycled waste Panasonic-made personal computers (PCs) in Japan through dedicated transportation and recycling companies. In fiscal 2008, the number of waste PCs collected was 7,479, with a recycling rate of 62%.

Designing products that can be easily recycled is essential to achieving a high recycling rate,* quickly and at a low cost. Toward this end, it is important to identify how products should be improved. Panasonic product designers are currently working on that issue. Individual products are made up of a variety of components. The designers themselves are performing dismantling tests on existing products and prototypes to investigate how long it takes to dismantle each component, as well as the quality and weight of the components. Panasonic has developed software that easily calculates the recycling rate and cost based on these data, and is utilizing this information to improve the recycling rate, starting from the design phase.

The test dismantling of products has already been completed on about 40 models, and we are accumulating data on recycling technology and know-how.

• * Recycling rate; The Japanese Law for Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances defines this as "weight of components and materials that can be sold or are transferable without charge / product weight."

In Japan, Panasonic engages in independent mobile phone collection and recycling initiatives through the Mobile Recycle Network, a group made up of carriers and mobile phone manufacturers.