Showa Denko K K (SDK), a major manufacturer of chemical products serving from heavy industry to computers and electronics, has obtained a license to process industrial waste and started to accept used plastics which were crushed and moulded.

Since 2003, SDK’s Kawasaki Plant, which is located in Japan’s Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, has been operating “plastic chemical recycling business,” a business to recycle used plastics as raw materials for chemicals under the provisions of Containers and Packaging Recycling Law.  SDK calls this business “Kawasaki Plastic Recycling (KPR).”

“We gasify used plastics under high temperature, and decompose them to the level of molecules. Then gasified plastics are converted into hydrogen (low-carbon hydrogen) and carbon dioxide (CO2). We use low-carbon hydrogen as raw material to produce ammonia, and CO2 as raw material to produce dry ice and carbonated drinks,” the company said in a statement.

SDK said it is the only company in the world that has track record of long-term commercial operation of plastic chemical recycling through gasification. These days, social needs for high-technology based recycling of used plastics as a countermeasure against plastic-debris problems including marine plastic problem have been increasing. SDK obtained the license to process industrial waste as a response to the increase in such social needs. Also, this license enables it to diversify sources of used plastics. Thus, SDK has established a used-plastics procurement system that supports stable operation of KPR.

Among 9 million tonnes of used plastics discharged in Japan every year, 7.5 million tonnes are reused (390,000 tonnes are reused through chemical recycling, 2,080,000 tonnes are reused through material recycling, and 5,030,000 tonnes are reused through thermal recycling), and 1.42 million tonnes are not reused but incinerated or landfilled. Chemical recycling of plastics converts used plastics into raw materials and enables society to reuse them. Therefore, chemical recycling of used plastics attracts people’s attention as one of key technologies that help people realise recycling oriented society.

Kawasaki City is recognised as Eco-town. SDK and Kawasaki City concluded an agreement to promote realisation of society where low-carbon hydrogen with low environmental burden is utilised.