A partnership of three companies has been working since August 2023 on a joint pilot test for the horizontal recycling of printed BOPP flexible packaging film. And now, the three companies – TOPPAN Holdings Inc. (Tokyo: 7911) group company TOPPAN Inc. (President & Representative Director: SAITO Masanori), RM Tohcello Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda, Tokyo; President & CEO: MATSUZAKA Shigeharu) and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: HASHIMOTO Osamu) – have developed a recycled BOPP film suitable for mass production. The companies will begin providing samples of this film within October 2024.
The creation of this film sees printed film waste generated by TOPPAN get collected and taken to Mitsui Chemicals’ Nagoya Works, where the ink is removed and the waste is turned into pellets. These pellets are then turned into film by RM Tohcello. The recycled film has been tested for mass production purposes at TOPPAN packaging facilities, with the results finding it to be suited for mass production processes such as printing, laminating, and pouch forming. The companies have also evaluated the physical properties of the film in pouch form, confirming that it is fit for use as packaging.
