Container and packaging materials are said to account for about 60% of general waste. The Container and Packaging Recycling Law, aimed at promoting their recycling, will finally be fully enforced starting April 2000. It covers plastics other than PET bottles, and paper products excluding cardboard and beverage cartons. Therefore, container manufacturers and users are obligated to either remanufacture these materials or bear the associated costs.

Container and packaging materials are said to account for about 60% of general waste. The Container and Packaging Recycling Law, aimed at promoting their recycling, will finally be fully enforced starting April 2000. It covers plastics other than PET bottles, and paper products excluding cardboard and beverage cartons. Therefore, container manufacturers and users are obligated to either remanufacture these materials or bear the associated costs.
They have collectively begun developing and transitioning to packaging with lower recycling burdens, ultimately aiming for greater environmental consideration. This movement toward "environmental consideration" is supported by concrete actions. Leading this trend is Dai Nippon Printing (DNP), which is estimated to account for about 20% of the market. The company routinely conducts LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) during new packaging product development.
By spring 2000, it plans to establish environmental impact data for all existing products using LCA. "In recent years, environmental inquiries to our sales departments have surged dramatically.
Therefore, we integrated environmental considerations into our daily packaging material planning, development, and proposals. We focused on LCA as a support tool," stated Mr. Hasegawa, Manager of the Environmental Packaging Materials Division within the Packaging Business Staff Department's Packaging Comprehensive Development Center, which specializes in environmental issues. He added, "The major strength of LCA is that it substantiates environmental impact with scientific metrics, rather than just verbally claiming environmental friendliness.
Internally, we review existing product materials and manufacturing processes. During internal presentations for new products, we specifically show clients the improvement points. Even if we say something is better, we must always explain why." They began LCA research around 1995 and established their proprietary LCA methodology in February 1997. The software they use is "NIRE" from the Resource and Environment Technology Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
Additionally, for comparison purposes, they also use "SimaPro" from the Dutch Pre-Consultants. Regarding databases, while some were created by BUWAL or the National Institute for Environmental Studies, they found parts unsuitable for LCA of packaging materials. Consequently, the five members of the Environmental Packaging Materials Countermeasures Office, responsible for LCA, collected new data and measured loads. They expanded the scope of their investigation from in-house equipment like processing and filling machines to recycling plants.
The inventory items include reliable metrics such as energy consumption, CO2, NOx, and SQ, while we continue to refine other items. Existing items are also revised and upgraded. We publish evaluation cases and respond to individual inquiries. In the fall of 1998, we published LCA model evaluation cases for various containers—including pouch containers, PET bottles, aluminum cans, and glass bottles—covering their lifecycle from manufacturing to recycling.
Using this as an example, let's examine the company's LCA process flow. For instance, looking at the CO2 emissions for a PET bottle (1500ml, per 1000 containers), manufacturing uses 52.0g of PET for the body, 3.38g of PP for the cap, and 1.76g of PET for the label, totaling 200.2kg.
Transportation to the filling plant (10-ton truck, 13,000 bottles loaded, 200km round trip) accounts for 20.8kg. Energy consumption during the filling process is 0.6kg. Transportation to retailers (4-ton truck, 2,400 bottles loaded, 200km round trip) contributes 45.2kg.
Transportation to the recycling plant assumes material recycling, resulting in CO2 emissions of -50.5 kg. From these figures, the total emissions for PET bottles (1500 ml, per 1000 containers) amount to 220.0 kg. Publishing these model evaluation examples led to a flood of inquiries from our clients.
Calculations tailored to a company's specific environmental conditions—such as its own facilities, truck loading capacity, and transport distances—may yield different results. Furthermore, many inquiries extend beyond the manufacturing stage to include the post-disposal recycling phase. Environmental measures have already become a critical factor influencing corporate competitiveness. This trend is expected to intensify further.
Therefore, how companies survive or develop new markets centered on the new value of environmental performance is crucial. The company's initiatives demonstrate that LCA can be one of the key tools for achieving this.