Toray to expand fibers & textiles recycling biz

04 Nov '11

4 min read

Toray Industries Inc announced that it has formulated a strategy to expand the fibers and textiles recycling business, which is part of the Green Innovation Business Expansion (GR) Project the company has been implementing since April this year.

The fibers and textiles recycling business expansion strategy aims to globally promote viable recycling from the perspective of enabling both environmental conservation and economic efficiency. It aims to expand sales of the business consisting of regeneration type recycling and collection and circulation type recycling from 7.5 billion yen in fiscal year 2010 to 11 billion yen in fiscal year 2013, the final year of Toray's medium-term management program Project AP-G 2013, and to more than 19 billion yen around 2020.

Under the business expansion strategy, Toray has assigned the brand names ECOUSE and CYCLEAD respectively to regeneration type and collection and circulation type recycling, and shall promote these brands.

In ECOUSE recycling, Toray shall drive forward chemical recycling, primarily of polyester filaments, and material recycling4 of polyester staple fibers.

In CYCLEAD recycling, the company shall promote chemical recycling of nylon 6 products using its own collection system and facilities, as well as material recycling of polyester products utilizing ECOLOG RECYCLING JAPAN CO., LTD.'s collection system, and expand the scope of products to be collected for both types of recycling.

Toray plans to convey clearly to the customers the reduction in environmental load of core products of the fibers and textiles recycling business by quantitatively visualizing it using lifecycle assessment (LCA). In addition to uniforms, for which Toray calculated environmental load reduction using LCA, the company shall gradually expand the target of such LCA calculations to its Green Innovation Products in Fibers and Textiles.

Toray positions the fibers and textiles recycling business as an important part of its medium-term management program Project AP-G 2013. The company shall continue to contribute to solutions to intensifying global environmental issues through initiatives involving customers.

The details of Toray's strategy for expanding the fibers and textiles recycling business are as follows:

1. Outline of the fibers and textiles recycling business expansion strategy
• Expand viable recycling globally from the perspective of enabling both environmental conservation and economic efficiency.
• Increase sales of the fibers and textiles recycling business 1.5 times the current level to 11.0 billion yen in fiscal year 2013 by promoting regeneration type recycling ECOUSE and collection and circulation type recycling CYCLEAD.
• Establish brands for regeneration type recycling and collection and circulation type recycling, ECOUSE and CYCLEAD respectively, and promote them.
• Calculate the impact of environmental load reduction of products based on recycled materials using lifecycle assessment (LCA) and appeal it.

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