Japan’s Sumitomo building pilot-scale waste processing facility

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Sumitomo Chemical is constructing a pilot-scale mechanical waste processing facility aimed at developing a material recycling business using waste plastics collected from end-of-life automobiles, the Japanese producer said on Tuesday.

The company will start providing samples of recycled plastic material to customers in fiscal year 2023 which begins on 1 April, it said in a statement.

“Sumitomo Chemical has decided to establish a new process to manufacture polypropylene (PP) compounds using waste plastics collected from end-of-life automobiles by utilising the plastic manufacturing technology,” the company said.

Since June 2021, Sumitomo Chemical has been studying a business alliance with Japanese integrated recycling firm Rever Holdings which engages in a wide range of environmental businesses, with the aim of developing material recycling businesses.

Sumitomo Chemical will use waste plastics provided by Rever for the new planned facility.

Some 3 million automobiles in Japan are dismantled annually for disposal and recycling, according to Sumitomo Chemical.

“It is particularly difficult to separate plastic components such as bumpers and interior parts and remove foreign matter from them after dismantling, which poses a major challenge to material recycling,” it said.

“In Europe, recycling of plastic automotive components is accelerating as a number of automakers adopt parts using recycled materials for new models, setting target recycling rates. Similar movements are expected to spread in Japan,” the company added.