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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Automobile life cycle outcomes and possibilities under extended producer responsibility legislation in Japan Ogushi, Yasuhiko
Abstract
The incorporation of life cycle perspectives in the manufacturing industry has been called on as a more effective way of reducing waste and resource use than conventional 'end-of-pipe' approaches. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and simple disposal is the list of life cycle options ranked in order from the most to the least desirable. While such rankings are robust from an environmental perspective, in practice it can be difficult to orient life cycle outcomes to match this hierarchy. Products can vary along many dimensions - technological complexity, physical durability, rate of technological change, and material characteristics. These attributes interact in complex ways with the market and regulations, obviating any straightforward relationship between product types and life cycle outcomes related to the theoretical hierarchy. The first part of this study does a comparative case study of five categories of products in the Japanese market: copiers, household appliances, disposable cameras, personal computers and automobiles. It identifies four key factors of life cycle outcomes - product attributes, after-market demand, reverse logistics and recovery technologies, and examines the way in which these attributes interact to produce different life cycle outcomes. An important trend affecting a product life cycle outcome is the recent regulatory approach that mandates manufacturers' responsibility of taking back products at the end-of-life. The second part of this study focuses on how the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Recycling Law in Japan, which was designed to improve recovery rate of ELVs, has led to innovation and technological changes in design, development and ELV recovery processes. Japanese automobile manufacturers have focused on technological innovation that enhances the levels of material recycling and part reuse. Other life cycle outcomes, such as remanufacturing of vehicles, are less likely to emerge as a result of the enforcement of the law alone. There are constraining factors to remanufacturing vehicles, including longer life span versus the period of manufacturing and the difficulty of securing quality of parts from ELVs. An evaluation of early impacts of the ELV Recycling Law on technological innovation and product life cycle may also provide insights for policy design and product life cycle strategies for further progress in ELV recovery.
Item Metadata
Title |
Automobile life cycle outcomes and possibilities under extended producer responsibility legislation in Japan
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2006
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Description |
The incorporation of life cycle perspectives in the manufacturing industry has been called
on as a more effective way of reducing waste and resource use than conventional
'end-of-pipe' approaches. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and simple disposal is the list of life
cycle options ranked in order from the most to the least desirable. While such rankings are
robust from an environmental perspective, in practice it can be difficult to orient life cycle
outcomes to match this hierarchy. Products can vary along many dimensions -
technological complexity, physical durability, rate of technological change, and material
characteristics. These attributes interact in complex ways with the market and regulations,
obviating any straightforward relationship between product types and life cycle outcomes
related to the theoretical hierarchy.
The first part of this study does a comparative case study of five categories of products in
the Japanese market: copiers, household appliances, disposable cameras, personal
computers and automobiles. It identifies four key factors of life cycle outcomes - product
attributes, after-market demand, reverse logistics and recovery technologies, and examines
the way in which these attributes interact to produce different life cycle outcomes.
An important trend affecting a product life cycle outcome is the recent regulatory approach
that mandates manufacturers' responsibility of taking back products at the end-of-life. The
second part of this study focuses on how the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Recycling Law in
Japan, which was designed to improve recovery rate of ELVs, has led to innovation and
technological changes in design, development and ELV recovery processes. Japanese
automobile manufacturers have focused on technological innovation that enhances the
levels of material recycling and part reuse. Other life cycle outcomes, such as
remanufacturing of vehicles, are less likely to emerge as a result of the enforcement of the
law alone. There are constraining factors to remanufacturing vehicles, including longer life
span versus the period of manufacturing and the difficulty of securing quality of parts from
ELVs. An evaluation of early impacts of the ELV Recycling Law on technological
innovation and product life cycle may also provide insights for policy design and product
life cycle strategies for further progress in ELV recovery.
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Genre | |
Type | |
Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2010-01-06
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0092472
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2006-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.