The new law poses a few challenges to manufacturers who are now rushing to set up collecti
on networks and perfecting techniques to disassemble and recycle older products. With an
eye toward the future, they are also integrating easily recycled materials into new
products. Plastics, a major component of most electronicproducts, pose a particular
obstacle because their quality becomes worse and worse with age, losing strengthand
flexibility even if reprocessed. NEC Corp. overcomes this problem by creating
a plastics sandwich, in which the filling is 100 percent recycled plastic and the
outer layers a mixture of 14 percent recycled material. The resulting plastic has
sufficient strength and toughness for use as a case for desktop PCs. The company, in
cooperation with plastic maker Sumitomo Dow, has also developed a new plastic,
which engineers claim retains its mechanical properties through repeated recycling.
NEC uses the plastic, which is also flame-retardant in battery cases
for notebook PCs.