Reducing Hazardous Chemical Substances
In-keeping with the provision of Environmentally-friendly products, we continue to implement initiatives aimed at eliminating, reducing or replacing hazardous chemical substances as part of production processes, both at home and overseas.
Reducing Usage of Hazardous Chemical Substances
Having started to work on reducing the use of substances such as chlorinated organic solvents and chlorofluorocarbon alternatives (HCFCs) in fiscal 2003, we managed to entirely eliminate all such substances in 2008. The table below summarizes PRTR*1 substances reported by the Citizen Group overall during fiscal 2010. Following a legislative amendment and other events, the number of substances subject to reporting requirements increased from four to 11, while the volume handled jumped 2.8 fold to 92.5 tons.
Compliance with the PRTR Act
Amount of PRTR substances released and transferred in fiscal 2010
(t)
| Chemical substance |
Amount handled |
Amount released | Amount transferred | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Released into atmosphere |
Released into public waters |
Released into soil at works |
Disposed of by landfill at works |
Transferred to sewage system |
Transferred offsite |
||
| Ferric chloride | 33.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 30.0 |
| 1- bromopropane |
16.2 | 3.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 9.2 |
| Xylene | 11.6 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.4 |
| Nickel compounds | 10.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 9.3 |
| Methylnaph- thalene |
9.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Hydrogen fluoride and water soluble salts | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| 1,2,4- trimethy- lbenzene |
2.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
| Toluene | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
Inorganic cyanide compounds (except complex salts and cyanates) |
1.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Lead | 1.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Benzene | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Total | 92.5 | 7.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 53.4 |
*1PRTR Act:Officially called the Act on Confirmation, etc. of Release Amounts of Specific Chemical Substances in the Environment and Promotion of Improvements to the Management Thereof, this is legislation under which the national government, businesses, and other institutions monitor, compile, and publish data on emissions of hazardous chemicals into the environment from each source as well as on the presence of hazardous chemicals in waste carried away from manufacturing premises.
Amount of PRTR Substances Discharged and Transported
Example Initiative
CITIZEN SYSTEMS JAPAN
Active Use of Chemicals Management System
With regulations on hazardous chemicals being tightened around the world, including Europe’s REACH regulation*2 and RoHS directive*3, Citizen Systems Japan has build a system that manages chemicals contained in products. This system is now being used for centralized control of information on chemicals in product components and for calculating chemicals content, and has made it possible to respond rapidly to customer demand for environmental information.
Chemicals management system
*2 REACH regulation：A European Union regulation on registration, evaluation, and authorization that has been in force since June 1, 2007, and which imposes obligations to identify controlled substances and to register hazard information on businesses handling chemicals at predetermined quantities.
*3RoHS directive：A European Union directive for restrictions on the use of hazardous substances, which has banned the sale of electric and electronic products containing six chemicals (lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)) within the European Union since July 2006.
Example Initiative
CITIZEN PRECISION GUANGZHOU
Reducing amounts of water supplied and discharged with the introduction of water recovery facilities
Water recovery facilities
At the exterior component plant of Citizen Precision Guangzhou, Ltd., a subsidiary of Citizen Seimitsu Co., Ltd., we have put water recovery facilities in place inside the water supply facilities used in the cleaning process for metal dials and other items. The move has reduced the amount of water supplied and the amount discharged from the process from 650 tons per day to 130 tons per day, an 80% decrease. While planned as a response to Chinese environmental regulations, instead of water recovery at general wastewater processing facilities, we introduced a system that can be used with stability and with little effect on product quality as a method for recovering water within the manufacturing process. The facilities have been operating since March 2011 and are due to undergo screening by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in June. Moving forward, we will continue to work on clean production in response to further environmental regulations and promote environmentally friendly activities as a leading company in the region.
Example Initiative
CITIZEN TOHOKU
Efforts to reduce cyanide usage at CITIZEN TOHOKU
Finding replacements for cyanide compounds is one of our top priorities in terms of chemical management. We are therefore working to reduce cyanide usage throughout the Citizen Group.
We started reducing cyanide usage in fiscal 2008 and began switching to replacement substances in fiscal 2009. Compared to fiscal 2008 levels, cyanide usage fell by 53% during fiscal 2009. We undertook sustainment activities in fiscal 2010, and amid higher production volumes we managed to curb usage by the same percentage as in fiscal 2009. Looking ahead, we will continue to coordinate with our parent company Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. towards eliminating cyanide usage altogether. In fiscal 2011, we plan to further promote replacements for cyanide compounds and carry out activities aimed at a 20% reduction compared with the previous fiscal year.
Example Initiative
CITIZEN MICRO
Initiatives to reduce harmful chemical substances
Circuit board cleaning equipment
At Citizen Micro’s Yoshimi Works, we are conducting activities to reduce the harmful chemical substances used in the component plating and printed circuit manufacturing processes.
The initiatives being undertaken revolve around the following three themes:
(1) the elimination of highly toxic free cyanide compounds;
(2) the introduction of lead-free electroless plating;
(3) the phasing out of halogen from printed circuit boards.
(1) Free cyanide compounds had been used in the cleaning of printed circuit boards, plating pretreatment and as a stripper for gold plating. We have now completed the process of eliminating these compounds from the printed circuit cleaning and plating pretreatment processes. Production techniques for the abolishment of the compounds from the gold plating stripping process are now on the horizon.
(2) Lead is used as a stabilizing agent for electroless plating. For printed circuit plating, we have finished substituting this with a lead-free electroplating method. With regard to component plating, we have completed evaluation of an electroless plating solution which does not use lead, and plan to introduce the solution beginning fiscal 2011.
(3) On the phasing out of halogen from printed circuit boards, halogen is used as a material in flexible printed circuit boards and as a flame retardant in resist ink. We have completed the selection of halogen-free equivalents for circuit boards and resist ink, and are current conducting evaluations.
Regarding the abolition of cyanide, we faced challenges in terms of cost, quality and delivery times due to the higher price of cyanide-free equivalents and the extra man-hours due to their poorer workability. We gradually found solutions to each of these challenges.
With environmental regulations becoming stricter by the year, we will continue to pursue more environmentally friendly manufacturing through such activities.
