Improving resource efficiency
We are promoting the recycling of waste and by-products into alternative raw materials and fuels for cement towards the creation of circular economies. This reduces the depletion of natural resources and also contributes to extending the life of final disposal sites.
We will continue to create new added value and grow by flexibly responding to cement demand trends and social demands, while achieving circular economies at the same time as carbon neutrality.
We have set the establishment of circular economies as part of our environmental management policy, and have identified it as a material management challenge. We aim to reduce our environmental impact and achieve economic growth by utilizing the characteristics of the cement industry, aiming for further sophistication of recycled resource utilization technologies, and launching and developing new businesses that contribute to deepening them. The Taiheiyo Cement Group not only recycles difficult-to-treat waste using the cement manufacturing process, but also recovers various useful resources such as through phosphorus recovery technology (Rintoru), useful metal/precious metal recovery technology in the cement manufacturing process, and lithium-ion battery treatment technology, enabling reuse through collaboration with other industries.
We will promote this under the basic policy of sustainability management, while developing and sharing it in each business and research and development department.
Based on the current social situation, such as domestic cement demand trends and the promotion of carbon neutrality initiatives, we will promote the following initiatives as a roadmap for achieving circular economies by 2030.
- Securing the superiority of existing businesses
- Further improvement of the thermal energy substitution rate by securing the amount of waste treatment in cement production
- Securing coal ash sources for use as supplementary cementitious materials in blended cement
Furthermore, to contribute to the deepening of circular economies, we will promote the following initiatives:
- Recycling lithium-ion batteries, which are one of the difficultto-treat materials
- Participating in the phosphorus recovery and fertilizer from the sewage sludge resources demonstration project, which does not depend on the cement business, and the waste solar panel treatment business
- Establishment of technology for recovering precious metals and removing heavy metals from incineration residues from municipal waste
Resource Recycling with Local Communities
In addition to industrial waste, we also use general waste generated by local governments, municipal waste incineration residues, water purification sludge and sewage sludge as raw materials and fuel to manufacture cement.
The national waste generation volume in FY2023 was 40.34 million tonnes, of which 3.37 million tonnes, including non-utilized incineration residues and waste that could not be incinerated, were landfilled at final disposal sites.
The Group's systems for recycling municipal waste that meet the needs of society include the Incineration Residues Recycling System, the AK System, and the Ecocement System. We use these three technologies to recycle municipal waste and strive to make effective use of such resources and resolve environmental issues.
Resource Recycling with Industries
We accept coal ash produced at coal-fired thermal power plants and use it as a substitute for clay as a cement raw material. In addition, we operate Ash Centers to use more ash effectively. We supply limestone powder to power plants as a desulfurization agent for sulfur oxides generated by coal combustion, and we also take back and effectively utilize the by-product gypsum generated from the reaction as a cement raw material.
Steelmakers employ a refining process to remove impurities from iron ore as it's transformed into steel. We supply the limestone and quicklime used in the refining process. We also take in byproducts such as blast furnace slag generated after refining, and use them as cement raw materials and as supplementary cementitious material.
| KPIs and targets | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 |
| Promote the use of alternative raw materials and fuels Maintain waste usage intensity of 400 kg/tonne-cement or more |
405.2 kg/t-cement | 409.6 kg/t-cement | 421.9 kg/t-cement |
| Waste emissions Maintain volume of waste to landfill at or below 40 tonnes |
1.3 tonnes | 1.9 tonnes | 2.0 tonnes |
Demonstration facility of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's "Demonstration Project for Innovative Sewage Technology (B-DASH Project)"
Initiatives at Service Stations
Service stations (SS) reduce the waste handled by waste disposal contractors by accepting any residual cement that remains in silos after switching the cement products. Returned cement is recycled as raw material. The recycling rate in FY2024 increased by 14.6% compared to the previous fiscal year.
We evaluate the socioeconomic benefits from environmental impact reduction due to increased recycling of waste in monetary terms.
Basic approach
We use the external economic benefit (EEB) evaluation method through our Recycled-Waste-to-Cement System to express, in monetary terms, our evaluation of socioeconomic benefits from environmental impact reduction due to increased recycling of waste accepted from outside the company. We calculate that we created a social benefit of 88.6 billion yen in FY2024. In FY2024, the amount of natural raw materials reduced increased from the previous fiscal year, and the economic effect increased by about 2% year-on-year.
| Impact | Inventory | Reduction (t) | Inventory Market Price (Yen/t) | External Economic Benefits (Billion yen) |
| Climate change mitigation | CO2 | 1,986,899 | 3,000 | 60 |
| Depletion of energy resources | Crude oil | 108,397 | 18,400 | 20 |
| Depletion of mineral resources | Natural resources | 6,823,222 | 1,000 | 68 |
| Shortage of landfills | Waste | 4,923,390 | 15,000 | 739 |
| Total | 886 |
Taiheiyo Cement’s External Economic Benefits Evaluation
- We have developed a unique evaluation method to estimate the contribution to overall environmental benefit to society by utilizing waste materials from other industries.
- We use information, including data collected for the GCCA Cement CO2 Protocol, to calculate the reduction in consumption of fossil energy and natural resources associated with the use of waste and by-products.
- Economic benefits are calculated by multiplying reductions in consumption (effects of environmental conservation) by set market prices. The market values of the inventory items are set at FY2001 levels, and are estimated on the basis of the following considerations: CO2: Carbon tax of 3,000 yen/tonne, Crude oil: Import price, Natural raw materials: Purchase price (assumed), Waste: Treatment cost at a managed disposal site (Tokyo metropolitan area)
- A portion of the External Economic Benefits is accounted for in our profit and loss statement.
