He claimed that Toyota had a vision for environmental health from early on, when other companies weren’t even thinking about recycling.

For now, Toyota Metal is happy to share some of its know-how ― free of charge. Yoshida said this was because the purpose of the company was not only to raise profit, but to contribute to environmental health and prosperity.

This vision enabled Toyota Metal to meet the goals set by a law revision in 2005, which called for a minimum 95 percent of an entire automobile to be recycled by 2015. This company has exceeded the 95 percent mark since 2007, which is years ahead of its rivals, Yoshida said.

Toyota Metal recycles 10,000 cars every month.

The core of its recycling technology is the process involved in recycling “automobile shredder residue,” which is what is left after a car comes to the end of its life. At Toyota Metal, up to 2,000 tons of ASR is processed each month.

The residue is sorted and recycled to eventually become combustion fuel, bricks, glass and other industrial materials that can be reused.

From the 2,000 tons, 100 tons are transformed into reusable metals, 600 tons become plastic materials, while 180 tons are turned into sound-proofing products.

By Kim Ji-hyun, Korea Herald correspondent
(jemmie@heraldcorp.com)