The purpose of social responsibility is defined as "to contribute to sustainable development" in the international standard of CSR, ISO 26000 in 2010. The society faces diversified problems, including environment, water, food, poverty and the like. "Effective utilization of resources" is the most relevant issue to DOWA, as utilization of metal resources is the core of our business. This is also an important social issue.
Mineral ores are natural resource and will be eventually exhausted if people continue to use them. Resource-recycling is an important solution; however it requires technologies and infrastructure to effectively recover metals, and to properly treat the hazardous substances and non-usable substances produced in the recovery process. This includes technical and economic issues which need to be solved such as a proper establishment of a social system which enables effective collection of recycle materials, and cost and efforts put into treatment of diverse materials.
DOWA group will strive for growth through various initiatives, while understanding these issues and contributing through our business activities such as technologies, products, and services.
For sustainable economic growth, a new growth model that maximizes the efficiency and value creation of resource recycling, separate from the economic systems so far that are built on the constraints of natural resources is required.
DOWA group has built a circle of resource recycling like none other, by combining a wide range of recycling such as precious metals, consumer electronics, automotive, used small appliances and further cooperation with various departments such as waste treatment and research and analysis, rather than simply carrying out recycling in a fragmentary chain. Our sales, logistics departments aim at stable recovery and reduced recovery costs. Research department promotes the development of recycling technologies with an eye on future. Consulting department promotes high degree of recycling, taking advantage of the expertise and collective strength of the group, such as carrying out surveys for policies of various nations and regulatory developments. In addition, we strive to build a flexible recycling chain while increasing the flexibility by coordinating with domestic and foreign external partners and different sectors.
A wide range of recycling materials are hazardous in nature even though they contain valuable metals. Therefore, it is not sufficient just to recover a lot of material but "How to carry out recycling" is also important. Recycling must also protect the safety of workers and must be environment friendly while creating the economic value.
Technology and infrastructure of DOWA group's waste treatment business is an unparalleled strong point for the compatibility of this recycling with environment protection. Based on the technology developed in our mining and smelting business, we are engaged in responsible recycling such as technology for proper treatment of arsenic, cadmium and lead, incineration process that does not give rise to dioxins, and final treatment facilities managed by GPS and water leakage sensing system.
As the globalization of the value chain is progressing, it is also necessary to maximize the resource efficiency among countries. DOWA group has developed metal recycling, home appliance recycling, and waste treatment business in China, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, leveraging our tried and tested recycling and experience in Japan, and resources such as knowledge and human resources.
Also, we are working to establish a global resource recycling system by carrying out overseas collection of high-quality recycled materials in our United States and the Czech Republic factories. We are aiming for total optimization while ensuring the transparency and integrity with the legal systems of various countries, so that recycling can be carried out locally whenever appropriate recycling is possible, and in Japan whenever it is safe and efficient from the viewpoint of technology and infrastructure.
