DIC Corporation begun collaborating with Hiroshima-based FP Corporation (FPCO) to deploy the world’s first dissolution and separation recycling technology for polystyrene, the raw material used in plastic trays for food products, to facilitate the closed-loop recycling of these trays.
Article continues below
>
The two companies are aiming for practical implementation in fiscal year 2023.
FPCO promotes “tray-to-tray†recycling, collecting post-consumer foamed polystyrene food trays from approximately 10,000 collection bases at supermarkets and other locations across Japan, and then recycling them into new food trays.
Foamed polystyrene food trays can be either white or colored, depending on use. The used white trays that are discarded by households can be recycled into new food trays.
However, because pulverizing colored foamed polystyrene trays yields black pellets which usage is limited due to its color; and therefore, these trays are generally recycled into materials for clothes hangers and other household items.
To resolve this issue, DIC has developed a new dissolution and separation recycling technology specifically for colored trays.
This technology, which makes use of the technologies and polymer design capabilities DIC has cultivated as a manufacturer of inks to eliminate colored elements from black pellets, will be adopted at polystyrene production facilities, enabling “tray-to tray†recycling of colored foamed polystyrene food trays as of white trays.
DIC and FPCO intend to launch recycling of collected post-consumer colored foamed polystyrene food trays in fiscal year 2023, as well as to combine this technology with chemical recycling, which the companies are promoting simultaneously, to create a hybrid recycling process.
DIC Corporation is one of the world’s leading fine chemicals companies and the core of the DIC Group, a multinational organization comprising over 190 companies, including Sun Chemical Corporation, in more than 60 countries and territories.
FP Corporation (FPCO) is a Japan’s leading manufacturer of food containers used for items sold at supermarkets, convenience stores and other retailers. ■