Toyota Tsusho Corporation ("Toyota Tsusho") announces that in July 2020 it established a new company named Toyotsu PET Recycling Systems Co., Ltd., ("Toyotsu PET Recycling Systems") jointly with Utsumi Recycle Systems Inc. ("Utsumi Recycle Systems"), Chuo Warehouse Co., Ltd. ("Chuo Warehouse") and other companies. Toyotsu PET Recycling Systems will sort, shred, and wash PET bottles that have been disposed after use and recycle them into raw material for new PET bottles.

PET bottles disposed in Japan amount to 650,000 tons a year, with most exported overseas or recycled in Japan. However, due to import restrictions imposed recently by China and Southeast Asian countries, retention of used PET bottle in Japan is expected to increase. With the announcement of PET bottle recycling policies by Japanese beverage manufacturers, the creation of a sustainable used PET bottle recycling system in Japan has become an important issue.

Toyota Tsusho plans to engage in the first used PET bottle recycling operation in the Kansai region in cooperation with its partners in the recycling business and Japanese beverage manufacturers, and others.

Toyota Tsusho has added a circular economy as one of the priority areas in its three-year management plan that starts in FY 2020 and plans to contribute to the development of a recycling-based society by utilizing waste material as resources as one of its CSR materiality (material issues). Through this business, Toyota Tsusho will contribute to the Japanese government’s Resource Circulation Strategy for Plastics and the establishment of a sustainable recycling-based society.

* PET (polyethylene terephthalate):
A resin manufactured through the chemical reaction of terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol produced from fossil fuels under high temperature and high vacuum level. It is widely used in PET bottles and other beverage packaging.