Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. and REVER CORPORATION have concluded a business alliance agreement for material recycling of waste plastics derived from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). Through this alliance, the two companies will work to build a circular system for recycling waste plastics that includes the whole process, from collection to sorting to recycling into useful plastic resources, and to accelerate business development for plastic recycling, which has become an urgent issue not only in the automotive industry but also in society as a whole.

 

As various initiatives progress to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, resource recycling initiatives are becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry, which is a key industry of Japan. In particular, the movement to recycle waste plastics obtained by dismantling ELVs is gaining momentum, and is expected to accelerate further, driven by the resource collection incentive system which the Japanese government and various stakeholders are working to establish.

 

Sumitomo Chemical and REVER, a comprehensive recycling company that crushes and sorts approximately 240,000 ELVs annually, have been jointly studying the establishment of a circular system for recycling plastic resources since June 2021. After verifying waste plastic collection methods, recycling processes, and environmental impact assessments, the two companies have developed a viable system to produce and supply high-quality recycled plastic, and decided to form a business alliance to further strengthen the collaboration.

 

Through this business alliance, REVER will, by utilizing the process of collection, dismantling and sorting of ELVs that it has developed, provide Sumitomo Chemical with a stable supply of materials of good quality that can be used for producing recycled plastic. Sumitomo Chemical will, by using the materials provided by REVER, work to establish a commercial production process to efficiently make high-quality recycled plastics needed by automotive manufacturers. Through the collaboration, Sumitomo Chemical aims to begin supplying recycled plastic materials to automotive-related manufacturers by as early as fiscal 2025. In addition, Sumitomo Chemical and REVER will consider establishing a joint venture in order to expand their network and accelerate business development.

 

This alliance is a full-scale collaboration in which a company in the manufacturing industry that is producing and selling products and a company in the recycling industry that is collecting and processing used products work together, crossing over industry boundaries. Sumitomo Chemical and REVER will strive to contribute to achieving a circular economy by building a system for recycling waste plastics that includes the entire process, from collection through recycling, and thereby contribute to the creation of a circular economy.