Tokyo, June 09: Japan's leading automaker Toyota Motor is planning to make its Japan-built cars on average 88 percent recyclable by the year ending March 2006 to cut costs and reduce harmful waste.
Nagoya, Japan-based Toyota's vehicles are as much as 83 percent recyclable now, director Yoshio Shirai said at a press briefing. The company wants to increase that rate to 95 percent in the year ending march 2016, in line with proposed government regulations.

In Europe, Toyota aims to make its cars 85 percent recyclable by 2006, rising to 95 percent by 2015. Making its products more recyclable also enables the company to cut costs by reusing parts from old vehicles.

To achieve its targets, the maker of Corolla cars is reusing more parts and avoiding using mercury, lead, cadmium and a type of chromium that may cause cancer, Shirai said.
Toyota plans to completely stop using these substances in its Japanese and European cars by 2006, he added.

Toyota reused 23,000 parts from old cars in 2002 and aims to increase that figure 10-fold by 2010.

The automaker is for the first time using a new material derived from plants such as sugar cane and corn for its Raum compact car's spare tire cover and floor mats. Dismantling the latest version of the Raum for recycling takes 30 percent less time than for earlier versions of the model, thanks to an improved design and increased use of recyclable materials.
The first revamped version of the Raum in six years went on sale with a 1.5 liter engine last month priced at $ 11,820.

Bureau Report