First‒time Participation in the Koka City Eco Festa and Hands‒on Learning Plaza (Hitachi Construction Machinery Tierra)

On December 14, 2013 (Saturday), Hitachi Construction Machinery Tierra Co., Ltd. participated, for the first time, in the Eco Festa, which is jointly sponsored by the Koka City Environmental Affairs Department and Board of Education.

A team of 20 staff members, including volunteers, along with people from Tierra, Hitachi Kenki Logistics Technology Co., Ltd. (HKL), and an industrial waste treatment company, worked together to plan an excavator fishing game and a booth where people could use an excavator to crush scrap wood. Mini‒excavator child licenses were issued to children that rode on an excavator. Once when a little girl rode on the excavator, a female employee from HKL took the operating levers and showed the little girl how to crush a wood pallet. We also created an educational pamphlet that introduced the recycling process for natural resources. The pamphlet illustrated how crushed wood pallets are taken away by a waste disposal company and processed into wood chips or other forms. This is then reused as fuel.

The event served as a PR campaign, showing people how the Mini‒excavators assemble in Koka City are being used around the world. Perhaps one of the children that took a ride on an excavator today will choose to become a “Kenkijin” 10 years from now.

Hitachi Construction Machinery Tierra’s mini‒excavators are assembled from parts procured from around the world.

The parts procured from around the world are shipped to Japan on wood pallets. These palettes usually end up as garbage but Tierra asks an industrial waste company to take them away for recycling.
Tierra also uses returnable pallets for carrying parts. Since these pallets are reusable, they do not become garbage.

A recycling company processes the pallets and reuses them as fuel.