Evolution of Pencil Recycling Technology - 2001

Evolution of Pencil Recycling Technology - 2001

Hokusay Pencil has developed a recycling technology that utilizes sawdust generated during pencil production. Normally, about 40% of the pencil boards are discarded as sawdust in the pencil manufacturing process, but the company is working to reduce this to a fine powder and reuse it as a new material called mokunensan. In the past, this material was used as fuel for public bathhouses, but the decrease in the number of public bathhouses and the dioxin problem have made incineration difficult, and a new method of utilization has been sought.

Nisshin Engineering, a member of the Nisshin Flour Milling Group, cooperated in this recycling technology and succeeded in processing sawdust into a fine powder of approximately 100 mesh by applying toner particle manufacturing technology. This fine powder can be processed into a clay-like material, which can be reused as a pencil by wrapping it around a pencil lead and for various other applications.

This initiative by Hokusay Pencil is an important technology that reduces waste and makes effective use of resources, thereby reducing environmental impact.