In the waste materials targets coming under “Implementing closed loop recycling”, our target for final disposal rate for all waste materials was 2% or less, and for decommissioned telecommunications equipment, our target was the continued achievement of zero emissions^*1. Our final disposal rate for all waste materials for fiscal 2012 decreased by approximately 0.49% from the previous year to 1.75%. Our final disposal rate for decommissioned communications equipment was 0.04%, and as such, we achieved zero emissions for the eighth consecutive year.

Our target for reducing paper consumption was a reduction of 30% or more by fiscal 2021 compared with fiscal 2009 (to a total of 58,000 tons or less). Our total paper consumption for fiscal 2012 was 66,000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 6,000 tons.

The NTT Group owns a variety of communications equipment including telephone poles, switching equipment and communications cables. Such equipment needs to be decommissioned and disposed of when it reaches the end of its service life or is replaced during system upgrades for new services and so forth. We promote the reuse and recycling of such decommissioned communications equipment within the Group, and recycle whenever possible, for example recycling discarded concrete blocks as road building material.

Cable waste

Concrete waste

Sticker promoting the collection of used phones

Containing gold, silver, copper, palladium and other metals, mobile phones could be regarded as a valuable recycling resource in Japan with its paucity of mineral resources.

NTT DOCOMO has collected and recycled used mobile phones since 1998. In 2001, it partnered with the Telecommunications Carriers Association to build the Mobile Recycle Network to collect mobile handsets irrespective of carrier, and collects used phones from retailers as well as docomo Shops. In fiscal 2012 it collected 3.72 million handsets, making for a cumulative total of 80.36 million. Collected phones are subjected to data deletion and crushing in the presence of the customer to protect personal information.

DOCOMO does its utmost to advertise the importance of phone recycling, displaying used phone collection stickers in docomo Shops and promoting collection at events to further enhance these efforts. It is also participating in the Mobile Phone Recycling Promotion Council established in July 2011 under the coordination of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and Ministry of the Environment, and working with other corporate participants to get the phone recycling message out to the public and drive the Council's collection promotion activities.