26 January 2021
JFE Engineering Corporation
J&T Recycling Corporation
Hagihara Industries Inc.
J&T Recycling Corporation (President and Representative Director: Tetsuo Tsuyuguchi; Head office: Yokohama, Kanagawa), a subsidiary of JFE Engineering Corporation (President and CEO: Hajime Oshita; Head office: Chiyoda, Tokyo), has partnered with Hagihara Industries Inc. (President: Kazushi Asano; Head office: Kurashiki, Okayama) for the purpose of commercializing "Revalue+"*1, a scheme that would produce new blue tarps out of discarded ones.
Many discarded blue tarps are currently being incinerated. While some are materially recycled*2 into resin pellets, these recycled pellets lack the quality to be made into new blue tarps and undergo cascade recycling*3 instead.
Amidst this backdrop, an increasing amount of attention has been placed recently on horizontal recycling*4, a superior form of recycling that many believe will help in the attainment of SDGs (sustainable development goals) and contribute to efforts to tackle the pollution caused by discarded plastics.
Hagihara Industries is the largest domestic producer of blue tarps, while J&T Recycling brings its waste collection network and recycling technologies to the table. These two firms will work together to establish Revalue+ as the Japan's first horizontal recycling program for discarded blue tarps. The scheme will be built over a number of different phases, with the goal of collecting and recycling 5,000 tons per year.
Through these endeavors, the two firms will take a role in helping to curb CO2 emissions and reduce the use of natural resources, and redouble their SDG efforts going forward.
- *1 "Revalue+" is the name given by J&T and Hagiwara to the initiative to produce new blue tarps out of recycled materials sourced from discarded tarps.
- *2 "Material recycling" refers to the recycling of products as raw materials.
- *3 "Cascade recycling" is a recycling scheme where something is recycled into a material of inferior quality.
- *4 "Horizontal recycling" is a recycling scheme where a used product is converted into a resource from which the same product will be made. The use of discarded PET bottles in bottle-to-bottle recycling is an example of this.
Summary of partnership and role of each firm
| Date of Partnership concluded | December 23, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Roles of each firm | J&T Recycling Corporation ・Collecting of to-be-recycled items from the disposing party ・Production/sale of recycled pellets from discarded blue tarps ・Development, production, and sale of products using recycled pellets Hagihara Industries Inc. ・Leveraging sales channels to secure sources from which to collect discarded blue tarps |
Flow diagram of Revalue+,a horizontal recycling scheme for blue tarps
Company profile of Hagihara Industries Inc.
| Location | 1-4, Nakadori, Mizushima, Kurashiki, Okayama |
|---|---|
| President | Kazushi Asano |
| Business description | Production/sale of products that use synthetic resin fibers derived mainly from plastics Production/sale of industrial machines that use synthetic fiber technology, such as slitters |
| Established | November 29, 1962 |
| Capital | 1.778 billion JPY |
For inquiries regarding this press release, please contact:
- Public Relations Section, General Administration Department,JFE Engineering Corporation