Social Activities

To tackle the problem with plastics, the Mitsui Chemicals Group aims to encourage the recycling of resources and promote a circular economy model by implementing our biomass strategy and recycling strategy and measures to address the problem of marine plastic waste. The problem with the plastic pollution in the ocean is a result of plastics that have escaped from the process for recycling resources and ended up in marine environments due to inappropriate waste management. Stopping waste from flowing into rivers and the sea is of utmost importance.
Mitsui Chemicals has undertaken clean-up activities in areas around our sites. In fiscal 2019, we launched a group-wide initiative, the Mitsui Chemicals Group Clean-up Caravan, calling on our affiliates in Japan and overseas to join in these activities. Going beyond the range of activities around our sites, the scope of the activities was broadened to allow for more employee initiatives, now including participation in clean-up activities organized by nonprofit and governmental bodies as well as clean-ups following community events. A total of 18,658 people have participated in the Caravan campaign, collecting 140,264 kg of waste since fiscal 2019.

Since 2017, the Mitsui Chemicals Group has been carrying out activities to support the World Natural Heritage Sites in Japan as part of its "Protecting Our World Natural Heritage Project," with a desire to contribute to sustainable preservation of natural heritage and protect the beauty of nature.

In 2023, as the fifth phase of the project, we held a bench design workshop to design benches inspired by the Shirakami-Sanchi at Fujisato Elementary and Middle School Fujisato Gakuen in Fujisato Town, located at the foot of the Shirakami-Sanchi mountains. The workshop was led by furniture craftsman Minato Norikazu, originally from Noshiro City, Akita Prefecture. Benches designed by the elementary school students during the class were created and donated to local public facilities.

Honshu Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., a Mitsui Chemicals affiliate has been participating in the Corporate Forest project^* aimed at preserving the forest environment, which has been promoted by Wakayama Prefecture as part of its environmental protection activities for ten years since 2010. Honshu Chemical Industry employees and their family planted approximately 1,500 broad-leaved trees in a forest (1.32 ha in area), and the employees remove undergrowth and perform complementary planting thereafter every year under the instructions of Kichu Forestry Association, which manages the forest on behalf of the company. In 2020, Honshu Chemical Industry signed an Agreement on Forest Preservation and Management with Wakayama Prefecture and Hidakagawa Town, with the aim of extending the effort for ten years. A signing ceremony for the new agreement was held in the Governor’s office at the Wakayama prefectural office, in which Mr. Nisaka (Governor of Wakayama Prefecture), Mr. Kurume (Hidakagawa Town Mayor), and Mr. Ohori (General manager of Wakayama Works at Honshu Chemical Industry) signed the agreement.