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| Aiming to Make Plastic Food Packaging More Friendly to the Environment |
Today concern is rising worldwide about the need to conserve natural resources and protect the environment. We therefore feel that manufacturers have an obligation to take environmental considerations into account when designing and producing their products.
For more than 30 years Chuo Kagaku has been making a companywide effort to develop environmentally friendly products. One example is C-Fine, a minimally foamed product that employs no CFC gases as foaming agents in its manufacture. Others are CT, CTF, and Talcon, materials packed with a high ratio of non-organic matter so that they can be safely incinerated, like paper or wood, and produce minimal dioxin emissions. Finally, C-AP combines a low combustion caloric value with excellent transparency. We are presently working on the development of a new generation of materials, such as biodegradable plastics that break down into harmless water and carbon dioxide when exposed to microorganisms in the natural environment. These development efforts are ongoing. |
| CT |
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Disposing of discarded plastic by combustion can cause problems. For example, the high caloric output of some plastics can cause damage to incinerator facilities. CT is a filled polypropylene material developed to have a lower combustion caloric value, almost the same as that of paper. It can be disposed of by combustion in the same manner as paper or wood waste and does not cause incinerator damage. A composite material packed with a high ratio of talc, an underused natural resource, CT is a product that helps reduce consumption of more valuable resources. |
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| C-Fine and CTF |
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C-Fine is a foamed material produced without the use of CFCs, which are said to harm the Earth's ozone layer. CTF is a revolutionary new clean type of foamed material that is manufactured using steam as the foaming agent. Both of these products are produced using proprietary foaming technology developed by Chuo Kagaku. CTF is patented in 14 countries and is widely used in environmentally friendly plastic food packaging. |
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| Talcon |
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Talcon is a filled polypropylene material developed to reduce dioxin emissions produced by incineration. The talc used as filler constitutes a full 55% of the total volume and the product is manufactured using proprietary blending technology developed by Chuo Kagaku. The use of a high ratio of talc filler reduces substantially the volume of petroleum resources consumed in the production of the product. |
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| Working to Build a Sustainable Society Based on Recycling |
Eco Series
Balance Lock |
One key theme related to the environment is making our society more environmentally sustainable by promoting recycling of discarded plastic. Chuo Kagaku is working to establish an industry-wide system in which local administrations, large-volume retailers, manufacturers, and consumers will work together to collect and recycle plastic containers after use. This initiative is already beginning to show results.
Three proprietary recycling processes ((1) materials recycling, (2) chemical recycling, and (3) thermal recycling) are used to turn discarded plastic food containers into new products. One example of materials recycling is the Eco Series, which was the first product of this kind in Japan. A process applying revolutionary new technology is used to enclose low-grade discarded plastic in high-grade discarded plastic, resulting in new products with greatly improved strength. Another example is Balance Lock, a road paving material made of discarded plastic and tires. Our efforts in the area of chemical recycling include verification testing of petrochemical reduction systems and support for blast furnace reduction systems. Petrochemical reduction has been successfully implemented on discarded plastic lunchbox containers collected at the Nagano Olympics and Namihaya National Athletic Meet. We are also exploring monomer reduction from discarded PSP trays, a promising new field for chemical recycling. Verification testing on a practical scale is underway with the cooperation of major plant manufacturers, and it is hoped that these efforts will eventually make it possible to recycle plastics into substances functionally identical to virgin raw materials. |
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