Waste Reduction
1. Philosophy
As a manufacturer of chemical products, JSR Group understands that addressing the problem of marine plastic litter facing society is one of our most important issues. We recognize that it is our duty to contribute to the realization of a recycling-based society.
In addition to initiatives related to the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) of waste, we advance the efficient use of resources (circular economy) throughout the life cycle from raw materials procurement to product manufacturing, while also contributing to the customers through business activities and the achievement of related SDGs.
2. Trend in Generation and Disposal of Industrial Waste
In FY2021, JSR Group set KPIs for identified materiality. In the “Management Foundation” materiality of "environmental conservation and impact reduction," we have set a global goal to reduce the amount of waste sent to final off-site landfills to 0.1% or less of the amount of waste generated. In FY2023, we achieved this global goal.
Amount of Industrial Waste We Generate and Recycling Rate
In FY2023, the amount of industrial waste we generated was 12,000 tons (down 19% from the previous year), and the recycling rate was 97%. Although the amount of industrial waste we generate fluctuates along with production volume, we will continue our efforts to curb the amount while promoting recycling and taking a long-term perspective in our activities.
3. Initiatives to Reduce Industrial Waste
(1) End-of-Life Plastics Recycling Advancement
In FY2019, JSR established the following targets for FY2030 following Japan’s plastic resource circulation strategy.
1) 100% recycling (including heat recovery)
2) 60% recycling (not including heat recovery)
Initially, waste plastics were targeted, but in FY2023 the target was revised to end-of-life plastics.
The FY2023 end-of-life plastics recycling rate was 97% when including heat recovery and 51% when not including heat recovery.
As future initiatives, in Step 1, we will promote the conversion from “simple incineration” to thermal recycling (heat recovery) for industrial waste that needs to be incinerated due to its characteristics, and also promote higher-level recycling as Step 2.
| End-of-Life plastics | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amount generated (thousand tons) |
Amount recycled (thousand tons) |
Recycling rate (including heat recovery)(%) |
Recycling rate (excluding heat recovery)(%) |
|
| JSR Corporation Domestic Group companies |
3.6 | 3.5 | 97 | 51 |
(2) Promotion of "3R" (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) for Packaging Materials in Logistics
JSR has always been serious about environmental measures in its logistics. Therefore, we promote "3R" (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to effectively utilize waste-free packaging materials and packaging containers.
We are working to reduce the weight of outer cardboard boxes (from a two-layer to a one-layer structure), as well as simplify packaging and streamline transport (palletizing) for our efforts to reduce packaging materials.
In addition, we are newly working on blank product labels, and our goal is to achieve zero waste of labels generated when product labels are reprinted. We continue to achieve zero waste with the blank labels now in use.
We are striving to use links for product containers* and to reuse containers used in processes for our efforts to reuse packaging materials.
Moreover, we are working to recycle various packaging materials, such as plastic drums, metal drums, pails and glass bottles, generated at our business sites for our efforts to recycle packaging materials.
Also, we are making efforts to select label base materials made from recycled raw materials (foamed PET).
JSR will actively engage in the above 3R activities for packing materials to promote recycling and effective use of resources.
* Use of links: Links are returned or collected from customers for reuse.
4. Initiatives for Hazardous Waste
JSR properly stores and manages low-concentration PCB* waste in accordance with the Act on Special Measures concerning Promotion of Proper Treatment of PCB Wastes in Japan. We will also systematically carry out detoxification treatment in accordance with treatment deadlines.
* PCB stands for polychlorinated biphenyl