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The NTT Group promotes efficient resource utilization.

What resources does the NTT Group own?

The NTT Group provides a wide range of telecommunications and other services that require significant quantities of resources.

Resources include the physical telegraph poles and cables without which the internet and telephone networks could not function.

Telegraph poles are used for both power wires and communication cables.

The NTT Group owns nearly 12 million poles, one for every ten people in Japan, as well as enough telecommunications cable to reach the moon and back three times over.

Other important resources include gold, copper, nickel, titanium and other rare metals used in mobile phones.

Without ongoing access to these resources, we could not continue to provide telecommunications services and would soon be out of business.

This is why effective and efficient resource utilization is so important to the NTT Group.

Telecommunications resources of the NTT Group

Telegraph poles 11.86million

One pole for every ten people in Japan

Cable 2.24million km

Enough cable for three trips to the moon and back

Conduits* 620,000km

*Underground pipes that house communication cables

Enough conduits for 15 and a half laps around the earth

Quoted from Information NTT East Japan and Data Book NTT West Japan



Does the NTT Group have a numerical target for resource utilization?

The NTT Group promotes efficient resource utilization in line with the 3 R philosophy: reduce, reuse and recycle.

We are particularly focused on recycling of industrial waste.

Our ultimate aim is a final disposal rate (the proportion of total waste that cannot be recycled) of less than 1%, which we define as zero emissions.

Our R&D program also looks at how to prolong the service life of communication infrastructure, which is another effective means of minimizing resource consumption.

  • Zero emissions target for waste disposal

    Zero waste emissions target

  • 3 Rs

    Reduce, reuse and recycle

*A final disposal rate of less than 1% is defined as zero emissions at the NTT Group.

In what way does the NTT Group utilize resources?

The NTT Group promotes sustainable utilization of resources in communication and networking equipment and devices.

For example, we encourage people to drop off unwanted mobile phones for recycling at collection points in DoCoMo shops throughout Japan as well as collection boxes set up at major public events. Similarly, decommissioned telecommunications equipment is refurbished and/or recycled where possible.

As a result of these and other initiatives, the zero emissions target was achieved in FY2005.

The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 has recently decided to cast the winners' medals using recycled metals sourced from mobile phones.

So if you have an unwanted mobile phone, why not leave it with us so that we can use it in an Olympic medal!

Composition of Olympic and Paralympic medals at 2020 Tokyo

  • Gold medal: Gold = 9.996 g, silver = 616,420 g, copper = 39,984 g

  • Silver medal: Silver = 616,420 g, copper = 49,980 g

  • Bronze medal: Tin = 3,332 g, copper = 646,408 g, zinc = 16,660 g

*5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals will be cast.

*Medal weight and composition are as per the 400-g medals used in the London games.

*Figures do not take into account manufacturing yield. Material quantities should be multiplied by a factor of four to accommodate losses during the manufacturing process. According to media reports, the medals for the London games used approximately eight tons of materials.

Sources: Nikkei Shimbun newspaper, briefing materials from the 16th Board Meeting of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

Resources used in mobile phones

Mobile phones contain a wide range of resources, including gold and copper in the IC and substrate, stibium in plastic components, neodymium in vibrator elements, lithium and cobalt in batteries, nickel in chip resistors, gallium in LEDs, tantalum in tantalum condensers, nickel and chrome in button contacts, and titanium, barium and zirconium in ceramic condensers.