ITOCHU Corporation announced today that ITOCHU, FamilyMart Co., Ltd. and ITOCHU PLASTICS INC. will begin using food containers made from biomass-polypropylene which is linked to renewable resources (hereinafter “Bio-PP” or "renewable-PP") on June 8th, 2021. This is the first use of Bio-PP for food containers in Japan. (Photo quoted from ITOCHU’s website)

Bio-PP provided by Borealis and Borouge, and referred to as Bornewables will be used to manufacture pasta meal containers that will be launched on Tuesday, June 8. The food products in the new containers will first be introduced in the Kanto area. Then the use of product packages made from Bio-PP will expand to other areas.

The Bio-PP packaging is made from second-generation raw materials such as waste and residues from the agriculture and food industries, as well as waste cooking oils. The whole value chain has obtained the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC PLUS), an independent third-party certification which confirms the use of renewable materials and its traceability from the raw materials to the finished product.

Polypropylene, one of the major raw materials used for production of plastics, is strong and heat resistant. It is hard to industrialize renewable biomass polypropylene because it is very difficult to produce it from biomass-based raw materials.

In September 2020, ITOCHU announced jointly with Borealis and Borouge, that they had the strategic intent to evaluate together how to enable uptake of renewable -PP in the Japanese market. In March 2020, It embarked on the commercial production of renewable-PP packages and is now working to expand sales in other countries in Asia. This agreement has led to the first commercial production in Japan.

The developments of climate change are attracting attention in Japan and overseas, and countermeasures are urgently required. Under these circumstances, Japan has formulated a basic plan to introduce approximately two million tons of Bio-PP plastic products by 2030. 

In addition, the Japanese government declared that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. In this context, businesses should explore opportunities to implement biomass plastics that would enable the achievement of environmental goals while maintaining the superior performance of plastics. 

(IRuniverse)