Komatsu promotes the “Reman (remanufacturing) business” at our Reman plants/centers in 11 countries worldwide. “Reman business” involves remanufacturing the used engines, transmissions, and other components removed from construction and mining machinery that have been in operation at customer sites for a long period. We engage in various processes involving the collection, disassembly, cleaning, salvage or replacement, reassembly. We subsequently conduct performance tests, paint, and conduct shipping inspections before supplying the parts back to the market as newly manufactured components. Each plant/center not only functions independently but is also connected to each other through a network to share technical information necessary for Reman Business on a global basis. In addition, we obtain the durability information of Reman components operating in the market and provide important feedback to develop components with an optimum lifetime. With the Reman business, approximately 40,416 tons of CO2 reduction effect in FY2023 was estimated compared to the case of making new products.
We offer the following benefits to customers.
Komatsu has opened a new Reman (remanufacturing) plant at Komatsu Chile (Santiago, Republic of Chile) in La Negra in the Antofagasta region. The plant manufactures and supplies high-quality, high-efficiency Reman components to support the supersized electric dump trucks operating in mines in the northern region of Chile. This Reman plant has improved area productivity and the work environment by consolidating functions and optimizing processes based on the Komatsu Group's production technology. Furthermore, the parts warehouse has been consolidated and streamlined to provide customers with 9,000 tons of prompt, high-quality Reman components per year, contributing to waste reduction and resource recycling.
We will promote the following activities to further reduce our environmental impact and make the plant cleaner.
1. Introduction of solar power generation and operation with 100% renewable energy from green energy providers.
2. Introduction of a plant water reuse system and green irrigation system.
Komatsu is working on the conservation and effective use of limited resources by reusing critical materials used in products, etc.
An increasing number of diesel engines, which are used in construction machines, are now equipped with exhaust gas processing devices to reduce the density of NOx (nitrogen oxide) and PM (particulate matter) in exhaust gases. The exhaust gas processing devices use noble metals as a catalyst to reduce the density of NOx and PM. To effectively use these resources, Oyama Plant in Japan, for example, collects the exhaust gas processing devices of construction machines that have been replaced and recycles the noble metals in them. They are also recycling other critical materials to make them reusable, ensuring their effective use and aiming to reduce the consumption of new critical materials.
Komatsu promotes activities to reduce waste discharge while also implementing "zero emission" activities to recycle and effectively use the generated waste.
At our domestic manufacturing sites, we are mainly working to convert waste plastic into valuable resources, reduce wood waste by improving packaging methods, and reuse packaging materials. We are also actively promoting recycling through waste separation at overseas sites. In FY2023, we promoted the effective use of sand used in the casting process at overseas factories, significantly reducing waste discharge. As a result, the basic unit of waste emissions was reduced by 54% compared to FY2010, achieving our target.
| Item | FY2022 | FY2023 | Target of FY2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Index of waste generated per unit (Reference year: 2010) |
62 | 46 | 60 |
《Japan》
《Overseas》
Amount of generated wasteIndependent Practitioner's Assurance
Plastic product industrial waste generated at the Osaka Plant is outsourced to external contractors for processing, contributing to solid fuel conversion and thermal recycling. Amid growing concerns about plastic waste in Japan, the "Act on the Promotion of Resource Circulation for Plastics" was enacted on April 1, 2022.
In line with the acceleration of resource circulation across society, the Osaka Plant has also aimed to enhance the level of recycling by turning plastic product waste into valuable resources. Given the difficulty of consolidating various plastic materials into valuable resources, we focused first on polyethylene packaging materials, which have a single material composition and stable quality. We strengthened activities to properly separate these materials.
As a result, from FY2022, we successfully turned these materials into valuable resources to be used as raw materials for plastic products such as agricultural containers. Currently, we are exploring the valorization of polypropylene plastic cases and plastic pallets, and we continue to expand our recycling efforts further.
At Komatsu Logistics, we assemble sub-assemblies of transmissions, a key component of Komatsu construction machinery, and deliver them to the Komatsu Ibaraki Plant. To prevent quality issues such as rain damage during delivery, we cover them with plastic bags.
The Ibaraki Plant has been improving the layout of storage areas to efficiently transport the delivered parts.
In response, Komatsu Logistics proposed changing the storage location of the transmissions to a roofed area with less risk of rain damage.
This proposal was adopted by the Ibaraki Plant, reducing the quality risks associated with rain exposure.
With the reduced risk, discussions among the relevant parties concluded that covering the transmissions with plastic bags was no longer necessary.
This improvement eliminated the cost of purchasing plastic bags and the labor involved in covering and uncovering them, achieving both cost reduction and waste reduction.
Moving forward, we will continue to identify and address areas for improvement, ensuring there is no excessive packaging or unnecessary transportation.
Komatsu actively engages in environmental activities within its indirect departments as well. In FY2023, in preparation for the temporary relocation in January 2024 due to the reconstruction of the head office building, many items such as equipment, splash prevention panels, chairs, and desks were to be discarded. These discarded items were targeted for reuse activities within the Komatsu Group and external organizations such as Midori-kai companies. As a result, many of the discarded items were effectively utilized. Furthermore, during the ISO14001 external audit, these activities were highly evaluated for their contributions to reducing plastic waste and improving CO2 reduction performance.
Given that our plants in the Hokuriku area of Japan use particularly large amounts of water, Komatsu optimizes water use for snow melting purposes in winter and also reduces the amount of new water input in production processes by recycling cooling water for facilities and the air-cooling of water-cooling facilities.
In FY 2023, although the total water input volume decreased, the basic unit dropped by 2 points from the previous fiscal year to 33 points.
| Item | FY2022 | FY2023 | Target of FY2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Index of water input volume per unit (Reference year: 2010) |
31 | 33 | 30 |
《Japan》
《Overseas》
Water input volumeIndependent Practitioner's Assurance
PT Komatsu Undercarriage Indonesia commits to conserving clean water for the future. Water is essential not only to health but also to poverty reduction, food security, peace and human rights, ecosystems, and education.
Because of these reasons, all employees of Komatsu Undercarriage Indonesia contribute to these activities, starting from the president's policy, providing facilities, and increasing employee awareness of using water. Komatsu Undercarriage Indonesia started implementing 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in FY2010, and since then succeeded in reducing it by 60% in FY2023.
In FY2015, Komatsu Undercarriage Indonesia created a Water Treatment Plant to recycle the wastewater and also created a groundwater tank to collect the wastewater from ablution. In FY2023, the quality of recycled water improved to be within clean water standards and the capacity also improved. In parallel with the increased quality and capacity, the rainwater harvesting container was also created by building a dam at the sewer canal.
After improvement, Komatsu Undercarriage Indonesia can produce clean water of around 800 m3/month, and reduce with the same amount of water. In the future, to achieve the final target reduce water usage 70% vs FY2010 by increase the recycled water, the water pond will be created to increase the capacity of rainwater harvesting containers and increase the collected wastewater.