Taiheiyo Cement Corp is beefing up its waste materials recycling business as it looks to increase the profitability of its growing environmental business.  
 
The company will invest around 3 billion yen at its Oita plant to place a garbage incinerator ash processing facility into service in April. The new facility will be capable of processing 40,000tpa. When combined with the existing Kumagaya plant, this will raise the company’s annual processing capacity to 100,000t.  
 
The processing facilities remove metal and chlorine from incinerator ash, and the remaining material is used as a fuel in making in cement. The new Oita facility is slated to collect waste from the Kyushu, Chugoku and Shikoku regions.  
 
Sewage sludge, sludge incinerator ash and scrap lumber can also be used as fuel, and the quantity of waste products and byproducts used is growing each year. In fiscal 2005, 351kg of waste materials were used for each ton of cement produced. By fiscal 2010, Taiheiyo Cement plans to increase that amount by 14% to 400kg.  
 
The company charges local municipalities for handling their refuse, and it expects demand to grow due to the shortage of disposal locations.