Announcement of a trial calculation of a wide-area recycling model using waste plastic as raw material in blast furnaces - March 2001

Announcement of a trial calculation of a wide-area recycling model using waste plastic as raw material in blast furnaces - March 2001

The Chugoku Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI Chugoku) has released an interim estimate of the recycling potential of industrial waste, particularly waste plastic (waste plastic), generated in the Seto Inland Sea coastal region. As a result, it is estimated that more than 1 million tons of waste plastic could be reused as raw material in blast furnaces at steel mills in the region.

This estimate uses the "blast furnace feedstock" method of waste plastic processing, which is the same technology that JFE Steel (formerly NKK) has been using since 1996. In this technology, waste plastics are melted and dechlorinated, ground to a fine powder, and used in the blast furnace as an alternative reduction material for coke, thereby contributing to the reduction of CO₂ emissions.

In the Mizushima Coastal Industrial Zone (Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture), the use of waste plastic in blast furnaces is being promoted in a similar manner in cooperation with local industries, making it an advanced example of a "wide-area recycling model" in the Seto Inland Sea coastal region.

Furthermore, the Chugoku Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI-Chugoku) is also promoting cooperation with other central ministries and local governments with a view to experimenting with transport by coastal vessels, aiming to build a system for efficient treatment and recycling of waste that is difficult to achieve on a municipal basis.

The features of this initiative are as follows:

- Wide-area recycling: Recycling across multiple prefectures is rare in Japan.
- Full-scale utilization of blast furnace materialization: Advanced collaboration with the steel industry, rather than conventional incineration and landfill.
- Utilization of domestic vessels as a means of transportation: Adoption of a logistics infrastructure with low CO₂ emissions.
- Sprouting of a public-private partnership model: A new resource circulation model in which the national government, local governments, and industry work together.

These examples represent a practical step toward building a resource-recycling society, rather than just waste disposal, and can be positioned as a turning point in Japan's environmental policy.