Among environmental businesses, the recycling field is attracting attention due to the size of its market.

Among environmental businesses, the recycling field is attracting attention due to the size of its market.
Although major companies and companies from other industries are entering the market one after another to develop recycled products, it is quite difficult to develop them into hit products that will surely capture the market.
In this situation, Top Tone Co., Ltd. has decided to commercialize recycled products by taking advantage of the resin processing technology it has cultivated over the years.
We interviewed the company's president, Mr. Sakaki.
From plastic to recycled material "Ecolotop.
Mr. Sakaki founded Top Tone Corporation, a manufacturer of molded plastic products, in 1969.
He started his own company in 1969 after working in the resin division of a trading company.
The Tokyo Olympics were held in 1964 and the Osaka World Expo was held in 1970, and demand for artificial marble and other resin products was on the rise.
The company has been engaged in custom-made interior decorations such as table tops and counter tops, focusing on artificial marble made from polyester and FRP, which is said to be "lighter than steel and stronger than iron.
The company's performance grew steadily until the bursting of the bubble economy, but recently the number of new stores it has opened has been decreasing.
Instead, the number of washstands and countertops for condominiums is increasing, but this is a very competitive field," he said.
In the midst of these difficult conditions, the company was looking for a breakthrough and was approached by a request to use industrial waste as a material.
Artificial marble is made by mixing resin and aggregate to create a texture similar to that of real stone.
For example, aluminum is used as an aggregate to create a silver tone, and brass as an aggregate to create a gold tone, but requests to use industrial waste as an aggregate were increasing.
In 1994, a major sash manufacturer brought in aluminum powder from sash cutting, and requests for pickup of iron, copper, castings, shells, glass, and other waste materials began to arrive.
Of course, the waste producers' goal is to save disposal costs.
On the other hand, Mr. Sakaki, who accepts the request, says, "Plastics, especially FRP, are a bad thing from an environmental standpoint and have been said to be a symbol of a mass-consumption society.
As a company, we naturally felt that our current business model would eventually come to an end, so we decided to start developing recycled products that use waste as aggregate material.
The company embarked on full-scale development in 1996.
The company accepted a total of about 1 ton per year of various types of industrial waste and worked to establish basic technologies.
Although there was no charge for the waste materials used as raw materials for aggregate, the time and effort required to sort out the types and sizes of the raw materials, the ratio of aggregate, and the design and design of the product was not half as long as it should have been.
After about two years of work, "Ecolotop," a resin made from recycled aggregate, was born.
The company aims to achieve 50% of its sales with "Ecolotop.
Currently, there are three types of Ecolotop products available in the market, using incinerator residue, glass fragments, and aluminum powder as aggregate.
The incineration residue is made from general waste from Funabashi and Koshigaya cities.
In using incineration residue as aggregate, we placed the utmost importance on safety and had it analyzed by a public institution.
The company's product lineup ranges from car stops and landscaping blocks to outdoor tables and chairs, interior tiles, clocks, and accessory cases (see photo).
We have been involved in interior and exterior design for many years, so our goal was to create not only recycled products, but also products with excellent design.
Therefore, we believe that the value of Ecolotop is enhanced when it is used not only for blocks, but also for other small items around us.
Indeed, at first glance, EcoloTop is so beautiful that it is hard to imagine that it is made from waste materials.
The small items are finished in a way that makes one want to display them in one's room.
The problem is the cost, which is currently about 40,000 yen per square meter, compared to the usual 25,000 yen per square meter for high-end tiles, due to the fact that the product is produced in small quantities.
Even so, there have already been many inquiries about using the tiles as wall accents, and the company is currently developing a sales method with more added value.
One of the measures the company is considering is selling the product as an educational material for environmental education.
Aggregate, resin, and molds will be combined and sold as a craft kit to create pen holders, accessory cases, and other items.
The company plans to sell the kits this summer, aiming for a price of 700 to 800 yen per set.
We hope that children will deepen their environmental awareness by crafting recycled materials in a way that they can see with their own eyes.
With Ecolotop already being introduced in social studies textbooks for lower elementary school students, this field looks promising.
In addition, the company hopes to use Ecolotop for other environment-related products, such as PET bottle cutting machines installed by local governments and outdoor guide plates with solar panels.
The company's future goals are to commercialize Ecolotop using PET bottles as the aggregate and to switch to recycled resin for the aggregate.
The company hopes to achieve 100% recycled material as close to 100% as possible, with safety as the top priority.
The company would like to bring the current business composition ratio of 8 existing resins to 2 Ecolotop to 5:5.
Ecolotop is a product that will determine the fate of our company's survival in the future.