Environment: Details of Regional Product Recycling Initiatives

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive took effect in 2005, and requires producers to take back and recycle waste electrical and electronic items.
Additionally, it requires that producers mark items to show consumers that they should not be discarded with general domestic waste, and to provide advice to consumers on suitable disposal options. Panasonic has proactively developed solutions to all these requirements.
The revised WEEE Directive 2012/19/EU entered into force in August 2012, aiming to increase the amount of e-waste that is appropriately treated and to reduce the volume that goes to disposal.

The following table provides an overview for calendar years 2010 until 2021 for Panasonic’s "WEEE return ratios" which is the percentage of the WEEE collected to the EEE put on the market.

*5 Return Ratio: WEEE collection volume/EEE put on the market

We have established our own-brand computer take-back system across Europe, which is primarily a business-to-business market for Panasonic. Based on our Notebook take-back and recycling program operating in North America, Europe and Japan, this means that Panasonic offers recycling solutions covering 95% of the entire Group's global sales volume of computers.

Panasonic has a very diverse product range in Europe. To manage our WEEE compliance across the EU, it has been our policy to register directly with appropriate recycling schemes in countries where we have legal company presence. Elsewhere, we work with our distributors to ensure that responsibilities are managed locally.
By clicking on each of the WEEE schemes listed below, you will learn more about their activities.

Note: Details of Panasonic affiliated WEEE recycling schemes by country are as follows. Some of the websites may only be available in the local language.

Panasonic continues its leadership role in establishing and operating a recycling system for waste batteries and consumer electronic products in North America. Following the startup of a state recycling law in Minnesota in July 2007, we established the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company, LLC (MRM), jointly with Toshiba Corporation and Sharp Corporation in September of the same year, and began recycling TVs, PCs, and other electronic equipment.

With collaborative ties to several recycling companies, MRM operates collection programs on behalf of numerous companies across 20 states and the District of Columbia. The cumulative total of collection by MRM has exceeded 1.2 billion lbs. (approximately 600 kt) since its inception in 2007. With the changes in Panasonic's business strategies in the US, our remaining collection obligations are de-minimis, MRM will continue operating its collection programs on behalf of the manufacturers it serves.

Panasonic collection results:

Note: This result is the cumulative total of Panasonic's voluntary and mandatory collections as of March 31, 2022.

Please see here for additional details on MRM and its programs.

In addition to collection of residential electronics, we have a robust scrap electronics equipment policy for our offices in the US and Canada. All obsolete office equipment is shipped to approved vendors for recycling. In 2021 we shipped 24 t and a total of 3149 t since 2006.

Recycling end-of-life products in Canada started in 2004 with the Alberta Government Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulation. Since then a total of ten provinces and two territories have legislated WEEE, each with their own unique parameters and requirements. In an effort to harmonize these programs, Panasonic Canada takes an active role in the governance of the Electronic Product Recycling Association, a not-for-profit management organization. The currently active provincial EPR programs have proven to be very effective in diverting e-waste as reflected in last year's totals, where 109.41 kt in Canada were collected.

Panasonic Canada initiated its own dedicated computer take-back system in mid-2017 by entering into a partnership with a third party reverse logistics company, Revolution Recycling, now called Quantum LifeCycle. This partnership allows us to extend to our customers two options: where units have a refurbishment value, we offer a buy-back program; and where units are no longer suitable for refurbishment, we offer free environmentally responsible end-of-life recycling, while ensuring personal data destruction to ITAD standards.

In China, we are engaged in activities to clarify the products covered by the Second Catalog (published in February 2015) of the Regulation for the Administration of the Recycling and Treatment of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products, which was published in May 2012 and enforced in July of the same year. In addition, we actively gather information and submit comments on setting unit-based rates for the covered products, toward early disclosure of information by Chinese governmental organizations such as the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Finance.
We are also carrying out an assessment of the development of the Plan on Promoting Extended Producer Responsibility promulgated by the government in January 2017, as well as reviewing our responses toward the expected publication of operational rules to the China Solid Waste Environmental Pollution Prevention Law which was enforced in September 2020.

The National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) was established in Australia in 2011. Effective from 1 July 2021, the Recycling and Waste Reduction (Product Stewardship –Televisions and Computers) Rules 2021 made under the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 will provide a new legislative framework to manage waste, recycling and product stewardship.

Panasonic Australia (PAU) partnered withEcycle Solutions, a co-regulatory arrangement approved by the Australian government to fulfill its obligation under the national scheme, since May 2021. Between January 2021 and December 2021, 209 t of e-waste were recycled. PAU will confirm the co-regulatory arrangement for the new fiscal year in August.

Since the introduction of recycling law in Vietnam in July 2016, producers and importers are required to establish a take back scheme for their products sold in Vietnam. Panasonic Sales Vietnam has since set up 7 collection points: two in Ho Chi Minh, and one each in Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Da Nang, and Can Tho. In 2021, 29.5 t of e-waste were collected and sent to licensed recyclers for proper treatment.

In November 2020, the National Assembly passed the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 which sets out requirements for a wide range of environmental issues, including the enhancement of e-waste management in Vietnam. In January 2022, the Government issued "Decree 08/2022 Detailing a Number of Articles of the Law on Environmental Protection" and "Circular 02/2022/QD-TTg Detailing the Implementation of a Number of Articles of the Law on Environmental Protection," under which producers/ importers are required to contribute financially for waste treatment of primary batteries on 1 January 2022. Producers/ importers are also required to contribute financially or self-manage e-waste recycling for rechargeable batteries from 1 January 2024 and electronic products from 1 January 2025.

Panasonic Sales Vietnam will work closely with the Vietnamese government to support the implementation of an effective waste treatment and e-waste recycling scheme.

The Resource Sustainability Act introduced in Singapore in 2020 requires producers of regulated consumer products to join the licensed Producer Responsibility Scheme (PRS), which started in July 2021. For Compliance Year 2021 (July 2021 – June 2022), a Collection Target of 60% (of weight supplied) was set for regulated Large Household Appliances (LHAs) and 20% for Portable Batteries. Panasonic Singapore is working closely with the authorities and PRS operator to ensure the smooth implementation of the PRS. Between July 2021 to Dec 2021, a total of 2,897 tons of regulated e-waste was collected by the PRS operator, of which LHAs comprised of a total of 92.7% by weight.

In India, the new e-waste recycling law has been implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) from the 1st of October 2017, with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) targets based on end-of- life (EoL) defined in the e-waste (Management) rules 2016. To fulfill the compliance, we will collect and recycle waste home appliances through the "I Recycle" program already established by Panasonic India (PI).

Panasonic India achieved the collection target of 2020-2021.

In response to a growing trend in stricter environmental laws in Latin American countries, discussions on the establishment of recycling laws and actual enforcement are being conducted.

In Brazil, a sectoral agreement on home appliances was concluded in October 2019, and a Federal Decree specifying a system to collect and recycle household electrical and electronic equipment was enforced in January 2021. As one of the main members of a waste home appliance management body (ABREE), Panasonic collaborated in the establishment of a reverse logistics system (a system to collect used products), and promotes efficient collection and treatment of used products.

In Peru, under the recycling law that came into force in 2016, we joined a nonprofit waste management organization (ASPAGER) as a leading member, and started a used-product recovery program.

In Colombia, a framework law for home appliance recycling was enacted in 2018. Panasonic has been a member of a used-product collection program (Red Verde/Lumina) conducted by an industry group (ANDI) since 2014, prior to the enactment of operational rules.

In Mexico, a collection program is implemented under the government-approved recycling and management plan.

In Chile, the legislation process is also being considered, and preparations for setting up a collection program are underway through continuous discussions with the government.