Nippon Express and Obayashi Corporation announced that they have established a circular transport and recycling flow in which construction by-products generated at construction sites on remote islands are shipped off-island for recycling. In a specific example on Miyakojima, waste gypsum board will be recycled at a plant in Kitakyushu, with transport and disposal costs expected to fall by more than 10%.
Nippon Express and Obayashi Corporation have established a new circular transport and recycling flow to promote the recycling of construction by-products generated on remote islands. They plan to build similar networks on remote islands in other regions and optimise the processing of construction by-products.
As the first application, they have begun shipping waste gypsum board generated at a site on Miyakojima off-island under the Wide-Area Certification System. The material is loaded into shipping containers using NRBOX collection containers and processed at a plant in Kitakyushu. More than 90% of the recovered material is expected to be reused as gypsum board raw material. Eliminating the loading losses associated with the previous process is expected to reduce transport and disposal costs by more than 10% in total, while also reducing CO2 emissions.
They plan to deploy similar networks on remote islands in other regions and are considering applying the same flow to construction materials other than gypsum board. The initiative aims to contribute to local communities and the realisation of a sustainable society.