Sustainable Use of Resources

Basic Concept

Operating businesses in a wide-range of fields globally, the Sumitomo Corporation Group recognizes the importance of effective use of limited resources and energy in each business to develop a sustainable society, and clearly states in its Environmental Policy that it will ensure the efficient use of water and other resources and energy. More specifically, we consider reducing environmental impact, sustainable procurement of raw materials, improving the efficiency of and reducing the amount of water and energy use, reducing waste, and promoting resource recycling as important challenges, and make efforts to address these goals through the activities of each business.

Initiatives

Tomra Japan: Creating and deploying a PET bottle recycling system in which consumers take part actively

Reducing the usage of plastic resources while ensuring its effective consumption - importance of this issue is increasing year by year as a measure for addressing global　environmental issues, such as marine litter and global warming. In this context, importance of resource recovery system is increasing, to materialize and enhance sustainable resource recycling. Tomra Japan is a joint venture between TOMRA Systems ASA (Norway) and our company. In addition to selling equipment such as reverse vending machines (RVMs) for the efficient collection of used PET bottle, we have also created and deployed a recycling system whereby we collect PET bottles from RVMs installed at supermarkets as well as convenience stores and deliver them to recyclers. RVMs only collect PET bottles after their caps and labels are removed by the consumers, this enables us to collect high-quality resources with fewer impurities. Through the supply of high-quality recovered resources, Tomra Japan has been contributing to horizontal recycling, in which fresh PET bottles are made from used PET bottles. In addition to such activities, in 2021 the company launched a new brand named “bottlium” with the aim to contribute to the recycling of PET bottles into polyester clothing. By recycling PET bottles into clothing that can be repeatedly washed, continuing the horizontal recycling of PET bottles, and encouraging consumers to actively take part in collecting and recycling higher-quality resources in an efficient manner, Tomra Japan will continue to contribute to the reduction of environmental burden and the development of a recycling-based society.