Fuji Seal, Inc. (hereinafter “the Company”) has jointly developed shrink labels made partly from PET resin recycled from used and waste labels* through a chemical recycling (Note 1) process. The Company has been collaborating with Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "CCBJI"), Taiwan's Far Eastern New Century Corporation (hereinafter "FENC") and Toyobo Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Toyobo") for the pilot project. PET bottle products decorated with the developed shrink labels made from chemicallyrecycled PET resin will be sold on a trial basis from the end of July onward.

CCBJI and FENC have been collaborating on a joint project to commercialize PET bottles made from recycled PET raw materials through chemical recycling since 2020 (Note 2), and as part of the project, they have been studying the possibility of label recycling. The developed labels contain a portion of rPTA (recycled high-purity terephthalic acid), one of the main raw materials of PET resin, generated from used and discarded labels by the TopGreen® ChemCycle (Note 3) process, a chemical recycling method developed by FENC. The Company has produced and tested the shrink labels made from polyester film that has undergone the TopGreen® ChemCycle recycling process along with Toyobo, who produces the polyester film, and it has been shown that the quality is equivalent to that of petroleum-based shrink labels.

(Note 1) Chemical recycling

After sorting, grinding, and washing of collected used PET bottles to remove foreign substances, the bottles are decomposed and refined into raw or intermediate materials for PET resin through depolymerization, which is then polymerized to make new PET resin. Ethylene glycol (EG) is added in the depolymerization process, which is then returned to bis-2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate (BHET), the intermediate raw material used in resin production. This is then purified and repolymerized into PET. The distinctive feature of chemical recycling is that foreign matter and different materials are removed during the depolymerization/re-polymerization process, and the PET resin can be recycled to the same high quality as virgin resin. (Source: PET Bottle Recycling Promotion Council)

(Note 2)

Launch of a joint project with Taiwan's Far Eastern New Century to commercialize PET bottles made from recycled PET raw materials through chemical recycling.

(Note 3) TopGreen® ChemCycle

A chemical recycling method developed by FENC. In general, chemical recycling other than TopGreen® ChemCycle, used PET bottles are converted to the intermediate raw materials at the time of PET resin production, refined, and then re-polymerized into PET. The new TopGreen® ChemCycle by FENC converts PET resin into PTA (purified terephthalic acid), which is the raw material of PET resin.