Current status of plastic recycling
Thermal recycling is the mainstream method of recycling plastics in Japan, and there are only a few examples of chemical recycling, which uses chemical reactions to recycle plastics. However, in order to realize the advanced recycling-oriented society that the world aspires to, it is said that the spread of material recycling and chemical recycling is essential.
Plastic material flow diagram (excerpt from 2021 content)
[RePOS®]
DIC's polystyrene complete recycling model
DIC has realized a complete recycling model of polystyrene (PS), the raw material for plastic food trays that is most familiar to consumers, using chemical recycling and the world's first dissolution separation recycling technology.
What is RePOS®
The challenge for plastic recycling was how to recycle colored waste plastic and put it into the recycling flow.
In the field of polystyrene, DIC is working on the production of polystyrene pellets that can reuse waste plastic in a variety of products through both chemical recycling*1 and material recycling*2.
We have named the product created using this polystyrene complete circulation model [RePOS®].
Dissolution separation recycling
(Dic method: Deinking chemical process)
Used white foam trays from general households are recycled again into food trays, but the recycled pellets of colored patterned foam trays turn black during the recycling process, so they can only be reused for hangers, etc. There was an issue in that it was limited to other daily necessities.
To solve these issues, we have developed a new dissolution separation recycling technology called the DIC method, which uses the technology and resin design knowledge we have cultivated in our printing ink business to remove coloring components from recycled black pellets and feed them into polystyrene production plants. "Deinking chemical process".
The DIC method allows colored patterned foam trays to be recycled in the same way as conventional white trays.
