Consideration of CO₂ Emission Reduction Potential by Utilizing Recycled Automobile Parts in China

Abstract

In Japan, efforts have been made to reduce CO₂ emissions by utilizing recycled parts of automobiles for more than 10 years, and an annual amount of reduction in CO₂ emission of approximately 130,000–140,000 tons per year has been estimated. This initiative has received a great deal of attention globally in the field of automobile recycling; however, we need to examine whether the strategy of utilizing recycled auto parts for CO₂ emission reduction can be applied overseas. In China, which has the largest number of vehicles in the world, the effect of reducing CO₂ emissions through the use of used automobile parts has not been investigated. However, based on the number of payments for non-life insurance accidents in China, we estimated the potential for reducing CO₂ emissions through the use of used automobile parts based on the number of traffic accidents in China, using current data from Japan, and obtained the result of 5952 t-CO₂/Y on average over 5 years. In addition, we collected information on the current situation of automobile recycling, administrative efforts, and policies and conducted a fact-finding survey and analysis of specific methods and issues regarding the introduction of Japanese-style CO₂ emission reduction programs in China.