Concept of recycling of plastic cosmetic containers
Shiseido, Sekisui Chemical and Sumitomo Chemical have collaborated to create a joint initiative to establish a circular economy for plastic cosmetics containers.
Related: Shiseido Q1 2022 Results
The initiative will collect used plastic cosmetic containers and convert them back into plastic cosmetics containers, without sorting.
Cosmetics containers are made from a wide variety of plastics; therefore, sorting them for recycling is difficult.
How each company will contribute to the initiative:
- Shiseido, will introduce a new scheme to collect plastic cosmetics containers through retail stores and use recycled polyolefin for its cosmetics containers.
- Sekisui Chemical, will utilize “BR ethanol technology” to convert used plastics into ethanol, a raw material for plastics, by turning combustible waste into gas without sorting, and converting the gas into ethanol using microbes.
- Sumitomo Chemical, will manufacture ethylene from that ethanol, by using a technology for converting renewable ethanol into ethylene, and produce, from the ethylene, polyolefin products with quality equivalent to conventional polyolefin using fossil resources.
The three companies will also call on related companies to join in the effort, and strive to create a more circular economy.
