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Sale of Plant-Derived Polyethylene

2008-09-24

Toyota Tsusho entered into a business alliance with Braskem S.A., a leading petrochemical firm in South America, related to the sale of plant-derived polyethylene in Asia, including Japan. It will be the first time in the world for polyethylene of plant origin to be produced on an industrial scale.
Polyethylene is the most commonly used plastic in the world due to its exceptional workability, physicality and recyclability. It is currently made from fossil resources such as oil, however, raising concerns over depletion of finite resources as well as exacerbating global warming due to the CO2 emitted during incineration.
Plant-derived polyethylene is made from sugarcane in Brazil where production is possible year after year, and it has exactly the same physical properties as conventional polyethylene. Since plants absorb CO2 from the atmosphere when they grow, only that amount of CO2 will be emitted into the atmosphere when the plant-derived polyethylene is incinerated. As a result, the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere does not increase. Plant-derived polyethylene therefore actually significantly reduces CO2 .

In addition, plant-derived polyethylene is produced using the residual liquid extracted when sugar is refined from sugarcane, which means it is not in competition with the food supply. These properties promise application in diverse fields. Plant-derived polyethylene not only contributes to a reduction in CO2 but also enables moving away from a dependence on oil.

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