Conserving natural resources | Products

Design with Awareness of the 3Rs

TOTO is reinforcing the 3Rs in product design as one of the company's initiatives to value resources. The company aims to minimize the amount of material disposed of through the product life cycle (during manufacturing, after use). To that end, the company is applying the five perspectives of reducing weight,utilization of recycled materials,making materials reusable, making products easy to disassemble, and providing labels that identify materials. This promotes awareness of the 3Rs in design.

Regarding the Use of Recycled Plastic

As part of our initiative to promote the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in our products, we are actively utilizing recycled plastic. In Japan, we use over 100 tons of recycled plastic each month. The main application is in the tank part of toilets, where over 80% is comprised of recycled plastic. In addition, we are increasing the adoption of recycled plastic in other components such as washlets, system baths, and kitchens.

*Project Commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment in Fiscal 2024 to Promote the Establishment of a Decarbonized Circular Economy System(Part of the above: Demonstration Project for the Establishment of a Recycling System for Plastics and Other Resources)
(Project for Recycled Plastic from Water-related Products Manufacturing Wastes)

*1 Plastic parts used in Japan during production

*2 Recycled material : Recycled plastics recovered externally from household appliances, automobile parts and other markets.

Utilization of biomass materials

Utilization of biomass materials, which do not use petroleum as a raw material, is also advancing.

Biomass materials contain substances derived from renewable organic resources as raw materials, and are obtained by chemical or biological synthesis.Since the plants used as raw materials absorb CO₂ through photosynthesis during their growth, CO₂ emissions can be reduced even when incinerated.

Recycling

Initiatives for Recycling Washlets (toilet seat with a warm-water washing feature)

We are trying to recycle used Washlets collected from parts of Kanagawa and Tokyo prefectures.

The collected Washlets are manually disassembled after cleaning. Metallic parts and plastic parts are separated. The metallic parts are sold, and the plastic parts are further separated, broken down, or crushed into chips.

Generated recycled plastics was used for everyday stationery items such as ball pens which are used everyday, cover for internal parts in the Washlet and pallets used in logistics. It is recycled as raw materials of the reproduction plastic now.

We will continue to study more effective modes of collection and product designs that allows easier recycling, as well as other applications of plastics.

Flow of Collection (TOM : TOTO Maintenance LTD.)

Flow of Recycling

Further Information on Applications (past applications)

Product- to- product recycling (from Washlet to Washlet)

Utilization as internal components for some models (for covers of components covers). 

Recycling into Shipping Pallets

Plastic components of toilet seats are recycled into shipping pallets that the TOTO Group uses in its sites.

Recycling as Stationery

Utilization of recycled plastics from Washlets as raw materials for parts of stationery or plastic bags.

*The stationery and bags are not for sale.