To achieve closed-loop recycling of all plastic food trays, the two businesses will begin recycling "tray-to-tray" coloured foamed polystyrene trays

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DIC and FPCO partner for closed-loop recycling of plastic food trays. (Credit: Arek Socha from Pixabay)

Japanese chemical company DIC has announced its partnership with FP Corporation (FPCO) for closed-loop recycling of plastic food trays.

The recycling process will use the world’s first dissolution and separation recycling technology for polystyrene, the raw material used in plastic trays for food products.

With the help of chemical recycling technology, the programme intends to make it possible to recycle polystyrene back into styrene monomer, which is used to make new polystyrene.

In November 2020, DIC and FPCO announced plans to work together to put into practice a closed-loop recycling system for polystyrene.

FPCO encourages “tray-to-tray” recycling by acquiring post-consumer foamed polystyrene food trays from roughly 10,000 collection bases located in supermarkets and other places throughout Japan and recycling them into new food trays.

Depending on their intended purpose, foamed polystyrene food trays can be either white or coloured and households can recycle discarded white trays into fresh food trays.

These trays are typically recycled into materials for household products like clothes hangers.

DIC created a dissolving and separation recycling technique specifically for coloured trays.

This technology will be implemented at polystyrene production facilities, enabling “tray-to-tray” recycling of coloured foamed polystyrene food trays as white trays.

It makes use of the technologies and polymer design capabilities DIC has developed as a manufacturer of inks to remove coloured elements from black pellets.

At the Yokkaichi Plant, DIC is moving forward with the industrial verification of this method.

DIC and FPCO aim to start recycling post-consumer colourful foamed polystyrene food trays in the fiscal year 2023.

They also want to merge this technology with chemical recycling, which they are simultaneously promoting, to create a hybrid recycling process.

According to DIC’s long-term management plan, DIC Vision 2030, responding to a circular economy is a key sustainability strategy and a challenge that is essential to the development of a sustainable society.