Nikon Mito Plant Achieves Zero Emissions

Mito Plant of Nikon Corporation (Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan) recently became the first Nikon plant to establish a zero emission system.

Since Mito Plant earned ISO14001 international standard related to environment preservation (April 1999), it has continued its efforts to reduce environmental loading and establish a zero emission system.

As a result, on September 30, 2002, it succeeded in achieving zero emission performance, when the landfill rate dropped to under 1% (0.55% for the year from October 1 2001 to September 30, 2002).

Nikon Corporation plans to achieve zero emissions at its Ohi, Yokohama and Sagamihara plants in fiscal 2003, and Kumagaya Plant in fiscal 2004.

• *Nikon Mito Plant established in 1991, handles production technology development and manufacturing of special-order items.
• *Note that within the Nikon Group, Sendai Nikon Co., Ltd. (Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan) was the first to establish a zero emission system, in February 2002.

Key activities leading to zero emissions at the Nikon Mito Plant:

1. Promotion of the three R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
2. Implementation of more precise sorting of waste metal, paper, wood and plastic, making possible waste material sale or conversion into refuse-derived fuel (RDF).
3. Recycling of machining sludge into cement material and material for copper refining.
4. Utilization of crushers and pulverizers to minimize waste sizes and store space requirements, while reducing the number of transport vehicles necessary.