TOPPAN Participates in Verification Project for Expanding Recycled Material Use in Plastic Packaging

TOPPAN Inc. (Headquarters: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; President: Haruhiko Noguchi; hereinafter "TOPPAN"), a group company of TOPPAN Holdings, is participating in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) project for the fiscal year 2026, "Project for Accelerating Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration for Establishing a Resource-Autonomous Economy (Verification project aimed at expanding the use of recycled materials in plastic packaging)." This project integrates the verification of consumer acceptance, quality evaluation, and cost structures across the daily necessities and beverage industries to address structural challenges hindering the expanded use of recycled materials in plastic packaging. This effort aims to generate implementable insights contributing to the advancement of resource circulation and the transformation of industrial structures.

Background: Plastic packaging accounts for a large proportion of domestic plastic demand and is a priority area in plastic recycling, with recovery and recycling initiatives progressing for beverage PET bottles. However, the use of recycled materials remains limited to certain products and has not yet reached a stage of broad, standard application.

Structural challenges exist, such as material characteristics of material-recycled products being prone to variations in color, foreign matter, and physical properties compared to fossil-based virgin materials. Furthermore, issues like meeting quality standards, persistently high raw material prices, and increased manufacturing costs hinder expansion. Consumer acceptance—the level of quality consumers are willing to tolerate for products using recycled materials—has not been sufficiently visualized. This may have led to excessively stringent appearance quality standards and increased costs.

In light of these challenges, METI is conducting this project as part of its ongoing research and review. The project is led by Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. and is being conducted in collaboration with Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd., Far Eastern New Century Japan Corporation, Kao Corporation, Kyoei Sangyo Co., Ltd., Japan Soft Drink Association, Tamapoly Co., Ltd., TOPPAN Inc., Toyama Environmental Preservation Co., Ltd., Japan Soap and Detergent Association, P&G Japan G.K., Yoshino Kogyosho Co., Ltd., and Lion Corporation. Iris Ohyama Inc., AEON Co., Ltd., Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd., Japan Franchise Association, FamilyMart Co., Ltd., and Lawson, Inc. are participating as observers. The project is also being conducted with technical advice from Associate Professor Yuichi Ishimura of the Faculty of Economics, Kindai University (companies listed in Japanese alphabetical order).

Project Overview: This project aims to visualize consumer acceptance toward the expanded use of recycled materials in plastic packaging in the daily necessities and beverage industries. Additionally, it involves quantitative analysis by upstream and downstream operators on possibilities for reviewing quality standards and expanding the volume of recycled materials used. This aims to extract insights useful for industrial ripple effects, industry guideline formulation, and policy discussions.

The project's key feature is the focus on the gap between quality standards and consumer tolerance for packaging, visualizing this gap across the industry. Beyond independent awareness surveys and quality tests, the integrated verification of consumer acceptance, quality, and cost structures is intended to generate implementable insights for future systemization, guideline formulation, and lateral deployment, while fostering public understanding of quality changes when using recycled materials.

TOPPAN's Role: TOPPAN is responsible for the design, prototyping, and technical verification of refill pouches for daily necessities as plastic packaging samples using recycled materials. Through basic physical property evaluations, such as appearance and processing suitability, it will identify challenges in the manufacturing process. Furthermore, it will provide expertise on the relationship between quality, cost, and manufacturing conditions, contributing to the verification of technical feasibility. TOPPAN also provides design support and conducts practical work for consumer acceptance surveys.

Future Prospects: TOPPAN considers this project a crucial initiative for addressing challenges across the entire plastic resource circulation system, including resolving structural barriers and improving recycling rates, leading to social implementation and expansion. To transition from conceptual verification to social implementation, TOPPAN will continue to accumulate knowledge through discussions and verification with stakeholders, formulate industry guidelines, and work toward policy reflection.