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TOLEDO (SPAIN)OVERVIEW OF THE WASTE PLASTIC RECYCLING SYSTEM IN JAPAN AND
FUTURE TASKS
Tohru Kamo1
1National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 16-1 Onogawa, Tsukuba 305-8569, Japane-mail:tohru-kamo@aist.go.jp

Abstract
Development of the recycling technology and social system is important to construction of sustainable society. The
Containers and Packaging Recycling Law came into force completely in 2000. Approximately 0.4 million tons of waste plastic
have been recycled by the recycling law. They were treated by feedstock recycle; for instance coke oven, gasification, blast
furnace, or by mechanical recycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) indicated that recycling of waste plastic or used PET bottle
contributes to reduction of environmental load. Gasification of waste plastic to synthesize ammonia or thermal decompositionof waste plastic in a coke oven was much more effective than others. Recycling of PET bottle was also effective for reductionof environmental load, and the mechanical recycling in China of PET bottle used in Japan was better than recycling within
Japan. Japanese recycling system has been run well and we are expecting that the recycling system is improved to havefurther higher economical efficiency.

Keywords: Recycle, Waste plastic, LCA, Feedstock recycling, Mechanical recycling

1. Introduction
Municipal waste had been landfilled in Japan until a half
century ago. However, after the high economical growthin 1960's, most of them were incinerated due to serious
shortage of landfill site caused on large scale production
and consumption. Some municipalities began to separate
plastics from the municipal waste after 1970's, because
content percentage of plastics in the municipal waste
increased, and high incineration temperature due to highcalorific value of the plastics gave serious damage towaste incinerator. Particularly, after toxic materials suchas dioxins was discovered in incineration residue oremission gas, plastics containing chlorine wereseparated from the municipal waste and they werelandfilled again. The dioxin problem was almost clearedby improving of incineration furnace. However, recyclingof waste plastic separated from the municipal waste waspromoted to create circulation type society aiming for thesustainable development since the Earth Summit held inRio de Janeiro in 1992 as well as recycling of vehicle orhome electric appliances.
Approximately 11.9 million tons of plastics wereproduced and 8.1 million tons of waste plastic wasdiscarded in 20091 as shown in Fig.1. Total rate of simple
incineration and landfill have decreased gradually since
the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law came intoforce. However, more than 25 % of waste plastic havebeen still discarded without using effectively.
In my presentation, I will introduce overview of waste
plastic recycling in Japan with a central focus on theContainers and Packaging Recycling Law, and I would
like to point out some problems and future tasks.

2. Present situation of recycling in JapanThe Containers and Packaging Recycling Law waspromulgated in 1995 to promote recycling of waste
plastic, glass bottle, metal can, and paper, and it cameinto force completely in 2000. Conceptual diagram of therecycling system designed by the law was shown in Fig.2.
This recycling system have been supported financially bycommission donated from the two kinds of facilitating
business; manufacturer and distributor. Containers orpackages which was used by consumer were collectedby municipalities, and it was packaged by veil after
removing unrecyclable materials. The Japan Containers
Fig. 1. Recycled waste plastic since 1996 in Japan.

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Fig. 2. Conceptual diagram of the system designed by
the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law.
and Packaging Recycling Association make bidding
every year, and recycle company who offer lowest pricecan use the waste materials. To give priority to thematerials recycle, only material recycling companies canparticipate in the first bidding.
Fig.3 shows annual variation of the recycled waste
plastic by the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law 2.
In the first year when the recycling law was enforced,
only 44,000 tons of waste plastic was recycled in all,blast furnace was a major recycling method. The
recycled waste plastic have increased year by year, and393,000 tons of waste plastic was treated by the recycle
law in 2009. Major method was mechanical recycling or
coke oven chemical feedstock recycling, more than 80 %of the waste plastic were treated by the two methods. In
the coke oven recycling, waste plastic was mixed withcoal at weight ratio of 1%, and was decomposed to gas(36%), liquid (36%), and solid carbon (18%) attemperature above 1000 °C. The gas or liquid products
have been used as feedstock or energy source, the solidcarbon was used as blast furnace coke The coke ovenhas treated the maximum amount of waste plastic as afeedstock recycling method, because it has a significant
economical advantage point due to use of existing large
facilities. In the mechanical recycling, approximately 50
wt% of the waste plastic was used as raw material, andother residual waste plastic was used as solid fuel.
PET bottle is one of the plastics which can be recoveredfrom consumer as the most pure material due to its
characteristic appearance as a material. Used PET bottle
have been converted to fiber or sheet mechanically, andthey are used for working clothes or egg box. Complete
recycle process from the used PET bottle to PET bottle
were put to practical use by two Japanese companies
independently, and one company has been operating still
now. Amount of recycled PET bottle in Japan was very
sensitive to the world or Chinese economic trend,
because a lot of used PET bottle was exported to China
from Japan (Fig.4). For instance, the amount of recycled
PET bottle in Japan began to decrease from 2004 when
Chinese economical growth was accelerated, anddomestically recycled PET bottle increased rapidly justinteriores libro.indd 16

Fig. 3. Recycled waste plastic by the law of containers andpackaging recycling.

Fig. 4. Recycled PET bottle by the law of containers andpackaging recycling.

Fig.5. Major feedstock recycling facilities in Japan.

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after Lehman's fall in 2008 when demand for used PET
bottle in China reduced.
Fig.5 shows major feedstock recycling facilities in Japan.
Six coke oven facilities, four gasification facilities, andtwo blast furnace facilities could be awarded a contract in2011. Two major steel companies, Nippon Steel and JFE,
have occupied more than 60% market share of the waste
plastic recycle, because feedstock recycling have atendency toward apparatus industry. On the other hand,
many small companies have participated to mechanicalrecycle of waste plastic or the used PET bottle, because
large equipment is not required.
Fig.6 shows average bidding price of each waste plastic
recycling method. The bidding price of the mechanicalrecycle decreased slightly each year. However, reduction
rate of the bidding price was not enough in comparison toother methods, and abolishment of priority right in thebidding have sometimes discussed. Bidding price of thethree feedstock recycling methods; coke oven,gasification, and blast furnace; decreased in the sameway. Once, three large liquefaction plants of waste
plastic had operated simultaneously. However, all of thethree plants were finally closed, because they could notwithstand decrease of bidding price competition.
Although the bidding price of the used PET bottle wasextremely high, it decreased dramatically in a shortperiod, and recently it has exported as valuable
resources to China.
Ten years have passed since enforcement of theContainers and Packaging Recycling Law, however, thesum amount of recycled waste plastic and used PET
bottle was still less than 0.6 million tons, and increasingrate of recycled waste plastic is almost saturated recently.
A lot of waste plastic commingled with municipal waste
have been incinerated. Most of incineration plants ofmunicipal waste in Japan are smaller than 200 t/day andpower generation efficiency is around only 10%, because
it was very difficult to transport the waste beyond theborder of each administrative area. Power generation
efficiency of incineration plant increased by developmentof technologies decade after decade as shown in Fig.73.
The Japanese recycling law have not recognizedincineration as an effective use way. Incineration is not
ideal way, but it has begun to be reconsidered as one ofrealistic and effective usage of low quality waste plastic.

17once. Total energy of the original system was calculated
from energy consumed to produce a equivalent palletfrom crude oil and to incinerate of the waste plastic (1kg).
Although the weight of the pallet made from virgin

Fig. 6. Average bidding price of each waste plastic recycling.

Fig.7. Development of power generation efficiency of municipal
waste incinerator.

3. Life cycle assessment (LCA)
assessment of waste plastic recycling
LCA is effective to compare the environmental load ofeach recycling method. Recently, various recycling
methods of waste plastic were evaluated by basket
method of LCA2. In this method, difference of the totalenergy consumption between the recycle system and theoriginal system was evaluated as effect of recycling.
Figure 8 shows detail of LCA calculation of a shipping
pallet manufactured from waste plastic by materialrecycle. Total energy of the recycle system wasconsisting of the energy required to manufacture a palletfrom waste plastic (1kg) and to incinerate the pallet usedinteriores libro.indd 17

Fig.8. Detail of LCA calculation for mechanical recycling ofwaste plastic.

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6th International Symposium on Feedstock Recycling of Polymeric Materials

material and waste plastic differs, they have theequivalent function.
Returnable pallet was more environmentally friendly than
one way pallet. Effect of mechanical recycling was
smaller than other recycle methods, because only 50% of
waste plastic have used for production of the pallet(Fig.9). Effect of mechanical recycling would be improvedby 60 %, if the removed waste plastic was used as asolid fuel4. Synthesis of ammonia using hydrogen derived
from waste plastic was the most effective method toreduce environmental load than any other recycles,
because energy to produce hydrogen can be saved.
Effect of liquefaction of waste plastic was not high due tolow conversion rate from waste plastic to liquid product.
On the other hand, effect of the coke oven was thesecond highest in other recycling methods, because not
only gaseous or liquid product but also residual carbon
can be used as an alternative of coke. Effect of the waste
power generation based on the power generation
efficiency of 10% was not high. However, waste powergeneration would be estimated to show equivalent effectto other recycle methods, if the power generation
efficiency was more than 20-30%.
Recycling of the used PET bottles contribute to reductionof the environmental load compared to incineration or
landfill, regardless of mechanical recycling and feedstock
recycling (Fig.10)5. Production of long fiber or short fiberfrom mechanical recycle of used PET bottle was better
than chemical recycle of used PET bottle. Even if energy
was consumed in transportation, production of short fiberor clothes in China from the PET bottle used in Japan
would be evaluated better than others. This result wasmainly due to the power generation efficiency differenceof two countries.

Pallet (one way)
Pallet (returnable)
Liquefaction
Gasification (fuel)Gasification (NH3)
Blast furnace
Coke oven
RPF
Power generation
(10%)
01020
MJ/kg

3040Fig. 9. Effect of various waste plastic recycling methods
to reduction of environmental load.
1,Short fiber

2,Long fiber
3,Clothes
4,Bottle
5,Long fiber
6,Short fiber

7,Clothes
8,Incineration
9,Landfill4. Future tasks
The Containers and Packaging Recycling Law waseffective to reduce energy consumption or carbon dioxide
emission. However, percentage of recycled waste plastic
by this system was only 5% of whole discarded waste
plastic in Japan annually. And participation rate ofmunicipality was around 60%, because this system wasexpensive not only for the facilitating business but also
for municipalities. The facilitating businesses havedonated 455 million Euro in 2009, and additionallymunicipalities have paid 354 €/kg for collecting or storing
waste plastic. In this recycling system, the cost to reduce
emission of carbon dioxide was approximately 0.27 €/kg,
it is 20 times more expensive compared to price in theinternational emission trading market. To reduce thesupporting cost of this system, it is necessary to abolishpreferential treatment of mechanical recycling in bidding,and to recognize high efficiency power generation as avalid method only in low quality waste plastic. It is very
important to construct economically feasible recycling
system and less sensitive to international economy forusing effectively waste plastic as valuable domestic
resources.

interiores libro.indd 18010203040MJ/kg
Fig.10. Effect of various PET bottle recycling methods toreduction of environmental load.

5

1. Short fiber (mechanical recycle in Japan), 2.Long fiber (mechanical recyclein Japan), 3.Clothes (mechanical recycle in Japan), 4.Bottle (chemical recyclein Japan), 5.Long fiber (chemical recycle in Japan), 6.Short fiber (mechanicalrecycle in China), 7.Clothes(mechanical recycle in China), 8.Incineration,
9.Landfill

References[1] Plastic Waste Management Institute,
http://www.pwmi.or.jp/flow/flame04.htm[2] Japan Containers and Packaging Recycling
Association, http://www.jcpra.or.jp/[3] High efficient waste power generation facilities
maintenance manual, "Waste Management Division
Waste Management and Recycling Department
Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of the Environment (2010).
[4] Waste and Recycling Division Central Environment
Council, Committee according to the method of recycling
plastic containers and packaging, Document of 1stmeeting (2010).
[5] H. Nakatani, M.Fujii, Y.Moriguchi, M. Hirao, J.
L.C.Asses., 4 (4), 324-333 (2008).

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