Since its business mainly involves vending machines, DyDo DRINCO uses significant amounts of steel resources in its business activities. Steel is highly recyclable and is recognized as a “model of recycling.” We aim to contribute to building a recycling-oriented society by working on the 3Rs, mainly of steel resources: Reduce (control of waste generation), Reuse and Recycle (conversion of waste into resources).
The average service life of vending machines is about 10 years, and a major cause of their disposal is the failure of their refrigeration or heating units. To extend the service life of vending machines, we recondition and replace the units to resolve this bottleneck. When doing so, we also provide the used vending machines with extra functions to make them compare favorably with newer models.
Through the installation of these recycled vending machines, so-called “Frontier Vendors,”* we promote the simultaneous pursuit of environmental load reduction and business cost reduction.
* Vending machine that have had their service life extended (through maintenance and replacement of units) and functionality added
The service life of vending machines has extended by 29% over the last nine years; the average age of service of vending machines* increased from 9.4 years in FY 2014 to 12.2 years in FY 2023.
* Calculated based on the average age of service of all vending machines (including those that are not Frontier Vendors)
![Average Age of Service of Vending Machines [yrs.]](./images/img02_04.png?ud=240918)
Vending machines contain many rare resources, including steel (accounting for about 90% of all the resources used), copper (in wires and refrigeration units), and gold (in computer circuit boards). So, from vending machines that have completed their service life, we extract reusable resources to the fullest extent possible and recycle them after removing CFCs (a source of global warming), fluorescent lights (a source of environmental pollution), batteries, and other harmful substances from the vending machines and disposing of such substances appropriately.
*: Some waste that cannot effectively be recycled is appropriately disposed of at controlled final landfill sites.
