In Japan, about three to four million vehicles are scrapped every year. While iron and other valuable metals are recycled and used as resources, remaining shredder residue (plastic waste after dismantling and shredding of vehicles) used to be landfilled in large part at final disposal sites until the Automobile Recycling Act was introduced.
Due to such factors as rising cost of disposal stemming from the lack of capacity at final disposal sites, declining prices of iron and steel scrap, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) filled in car air-conditioning as refrigerant potentially destroying ozone layer and causing global warming unless properly recovered, and appropriate disposal of airbags requiring expertise the Automobile Recycling Act was enacted in July 2002 to ensure suitable disposal and recycling of end-of-life vehicles (ELV) and was fully enforced as of January 2005.
