Products using recycled materials: Use of recycled plastic

Triggered by issues such as marine plastic litter and climate change, the importance of further promoting the recycling of plastic resources is increasing. Most plastics are made from petroleum. It is said that oil reserves will run out in about 50 years if we continue to use them at the current pace. Many of our products are made of plastic, but by using recycled plastic, we would like to contribute to the recycling of plastic resources by striving not to waste limited petroleum resources. Furthermore, from the perspective of climate change issues, products that use plastic are ultimately incinerated and emit CO₂. However, plastic has various useful properties such as ease of processing and lightness, and is indispensable as a material for products. If that is the case, the key to contributing to the prevention of global warming is to carefully use plastic materials over and over again. Using recycled plastics is a convenient way to reduce the amount of new plastics used and new CO₂ (which did not exist on the surface of the earth) emitted from petroleum resources.

The flow of recycled plastics

The flow of recycled plastics used in our products is roughly shown in this diagram. First, a recycling company collects materials such as non-standard products and scrap generated in the manufacturing process of plastic materials and products using plastic in other industries (pre-consumer materials) or collects materials from used products (post-consumer materials) . It is processed into easy-to-use pellets (granules). We procure the recycled materials, process them and commercialize them. In this way, products made from recycled plastic are created.

The flow of recycled plastics
The flow of recycled plastics

Released products using recycled plastic

In 1997, our company released ballpoint pens and mechanical pencil leads that used recycled plastic for their bodies and cases. The following year, we expanded our lineup to include correction tapes, highlighters, erasers, mechanical pencils, and glue sticks. Since then we have continued to use recycled plastics in our correction tapes, glue tapes, glue sticks, and other plastic products.

Released products using recycled plastic Released products using recycled plastic