Creating a circular economy
through recycling

A brand of recycling agents for ADMER™, itself an adhesive polyolefin resin used in multilayered bottles, tubes, films, sheets and more. By blending these agents in with material to be recycled, users can remedy the degradation in strength, impact resistance and other properties that occurs due to recycling, making for a significant contribution to material recycling.

Plastic waste sees plastics of various different types mixed together, causing its properties to degrade when compared to unmixed virgin material. However, when dealing with mixed plastics based on polyolefin resin, users can add TAFMER™ to help improve performance and expand the range of possible applications. TAFMER™ also enables the recycling of mixed plastics that include polar resins such as polyamide. B13 : H13

Paper cups, paper packaging and so on are generally multilayered, with polyethylene or another such material attached to the inside to provide properties including durability and sealing performance. Strong films of this sort made from the likes of polyethylene are not easily broken down in paper recycling processes, causing them to impede paper recycling.
But by instead applying a thin coating of non-solvent-based CHEMIPEARL™ to the paper, it is possible to provide heat sealing and water resistance properties while improving the resulting material’s ability to be broken down in pulping equipment.

Food packaging designs often look to ensure barrier performance by combining a polyamide, PET or other such base layer with a polyolefin sealant layer. However, such combinations of different materials can make recycling difficult. By instead applying TAKELAC™ WPB coating agent, barrier performance can be provided with even a polyolefin base layer – the result being that users can create monomaterial packaging in which both the base layer and sealant are made of polyolefin.

Made from polyethylene, L-Smart™ is a resource-efficient, eco-friendly, high-performance sealant film that leverages proprietary film-forming technology to allow for the creation of thin packaging materials. Despite its thin design, it is able to provide better impact resistance and pinhole resistance than conventional alternatives, and so is being offered as a base material in the push for monomaterialization.

One issue when it comes to the recycling of general packaging is that it is often printed. And carrying out material recycling with printed materials means that various colors get mixed together – creating gray or black raw materials, which then have a limited scope of use. In response, we are looking to leverage technology that removes ink from printed film, with this helping then to expand the range of applications for raw materials made through material recycling.

With recycled materials often displaying appearance defects, the current reality is that there is no rush among users to adopt them for use in products. However, multilayer injection molding by way of MMP sandwich molding represents a mold and injection molding technology that can use recycled material for a material’s core layer, helping to increase the recycling rate while also facilitating the production of materials with no appearance defects.

Plastic waste often sees plastics in various different conditions mixed together, resulting in inconsistent fluidity when these plastics are melted together via heat treatment as part of material recycling. And this then creates an issue wherein the resulting recycled plastics are unable to ensure consistent fluidity or quality, limiting their potential applications.
Joint industry–academia technological development is therefore being pursued with an eye toward enabling online measurement and control for the fluidity of the melted plastics, which would help to stabilize the quality of recycled plastics.

To ensure the traceability of materials, which is a hurdle to clear on the way to achieving a circular economy, we are working to build a resource circulation platform that utilizes blockchain technology. We aim here to create a system that ensures and visualizes the traceability of recycled raw materials, supporting the smooth flow of goods.

An initiative from MOLp, which runs voluntary activities under the Mitsui Chemicals Group. Projects here look to extend the life span of materials by utilizing technical expertise relating to materials and their processing, as well as by capitalizing on the particular characteristics of the materials at hand. Efforts being carried out as part of this include upcycling for the likes of flexible bags, optical lens materials and plastic bags.

We are teaming up with German company BASF, which is pursuing advanced chemical recycling in Europe, on a collaborative study to look at commercializing chemical recycling in Japan.

We are looking into technology that utilizes microwave pyrolysis to directly and efficiently break down plastic waste into its raw monomers.

Automobiles use a significant amount of plastic in order to minimize their weight. And some 600,000 tons of automotive shredder residue (ASR), which is created from recycling automobiles, gets generated each year. We have therefore looked into a process for turning this residue into raw materials - specifically by converting it to oil - with the aim here of making proper use of ASR.

R Plus Japan is working with U.S. biochemical venture Anellotech Inc. on developing efficient and eco-friendly technology for the recycling of used plastics. Aims here are to leverage collaboration that crosses industry borders in order to reach commercialization for 2027.

Launched in 2019, the AEPW is made up of plastic supply chain players from around the world, including chemical and plastic manufacturers, retailers, waste management companies and more. When it comes to cutting down on plastic waste, the organization is aiming to invest a total of $1.5 billion across four key areas - infrastructure development, innovation, education and engagement, and clean-up - by 2024 as it looks to help bring about a sustainable society. Participating companies numbered 58 as of June 2021.

Link

Mitsui Chemicals joins new global alliance formed to take on plastic waste in the environment

https://jp.mitsuichemicals.com/en/release/2019/2019_0117.htm

AEPW’s website

https://endplasticwaste.org/en

CLOMA was established in January 2019 as a platform to strengthen ties between parties across industry borders and speed up innovation. So far, the alliance’s activities have included sharing technical information between members and offering networking opportunities. And in May 2020, the CLOMA Action Plan was established, including the targets of recycling 60 percent of containers and packaging by 2030 and ultimately recycling 100 percent of plastic products by 2050. The alliance is currently looking at specific policies, trials and so on toward this end. Participating companies numbered 430 as of June 2021.

Link

CLOMA’s website

https://cloma.net/english/

JaIME was established in September 2018 by five Japanese chemical organizations, including the Japan Chemical Industry Association. With participation from Japanese chemical companies and organizations, JaIME leverages the life cycle assessment approach to evaluate the environmental impact of various recycling and energy recovery initiatives, and publishes the results of these assessments both domestically and abroad. The organization also carries out various other activities, which have included the February 2020 holding of a training seminar that introduced Japan’s expertise and experience with the aim of helping to improve the plastic waste treatment capabilities of developing markets in Asia.

Link

Japan Initiative for Marine Environment (JaIME)

https://www.nikkakyo.org/upload_files/jaime/JaIME_eng.pdf

J-CEP is a new business partnership between industry, government, academia and the public that engages in efforts toward a circular economy. So far, 30 companies are taking part here, with Mitsui Chemicals serving as one of five companies on the organization’s board. Plans are to leverage the likes of ICT to (1) achieve optimal circulation of resources in Japan and (2) create businesses that help achieve a sustainable society, with J-CEP leveraging these initiatives to lead the search for an optimal society that unites the environment and the economy.

Link

Mitsui Chemicals joins J-CEP

https://jp.mitsuichemicals.com/jp/release/2021/2021_1215.htm (Japanese only)

J-CEP’s website

https://www.j-cep.com/ (Japanese only)