Modelling of automobile shredder residue recycling in the Japanese legislative context

End-of-life vehicles (ELVs) represent one of the most important waste flows in Japan and 3.58 million was processed only in fiscal year 2008. In an attempt to reduce waste originating from ELVs, the Japanese Government introduced the ELV Recycling Law in 2002. Automobile shredder residue (ASR) recycling is essential to achieving the goals of the ELV Recycling Law and represents a major concern for the Japanese vehicle recycling industry. This paper proposes the tactical ASR recycling planning model, which can be used to assist Japanese vehicle recyclers to improve their profitability and ASR recycling efficiency. A numerical study is conducted in order to illustrate the potentials and applicability of the proposed modelling approach, and to gain insights into the performances of the Japanese vehicle recycling system and into the influence of the ELV Recycling Law. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate and validate the approach and its potentials. ELV Recycling Law influence is found to be crucial for the decision making on ASR recycling, as the 20% increase in valid recycling quota will cause approximately 50% decrease in the quantity of disposed ASR. We show that the stringent ASR recycling quota is easily attainable and present many interesting insights.