Corporate Recycling Efforts as Outlined in Corporate Social Responsibility Reports

Abstract

The Japanese government is making a major policy push to promote a recycling-based society that fully utilizes materials and improves waste recovery. It is therefore becoming increasing important for organizations to properly disclose information concerning their environmental initiatives and activities so consumers and investors will take such information into account when making purchasing and investing decisions. The purpose of this study was to examine the availability of environmental information produced by organizations as disclosed in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. From the perspective of the 2000 Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Based Society and related recycling regulations (e.g. for containers and packaging, household appliances, construction and demolition waste, and food waste), we selected three industries—motor vehicles (the End-of-life Vehicle Recycling Law), household appliances (the Home Appliance Recycling Law), and beverage industries (the Containers and Packaging Law)—and reviewed their recycling activities outlined in CSR reports. The reports had the following features : (1) At the planning phase, the producer takes recycling into consideration. Each production process makes all possible efforts for resource saving. (2) In the daily use phase, eco-oriented products contribute to resource saving in the form of energy, water and other resources. (3) In the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products phase, the producer makes efforts to re-generate parts, reuse commodities and recycle products. We conclude that CSR reports are useful for communicating environmental information to diverse stakeholders, enabling them to evaluate corporate environmental performance.JFL classification: Q53, Q56, D70, D82