News

2023/10/3

Toray Expands Chemical-Recycled PBT Resin Products Employing Depolymerization and Repolymerization Technology

Tokyo, Japan, September 29, 2023 – Toray Industries, Inc., announced that it has further expanded its lineup of high-performance-grade chemical-recycled polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) resin products. The company depolymerizes waste PBT from manufacturing processes and repolymerizes the material. The new offerings include glass-fiber-reinforced low warpage and hydrolysis-resistant grades. Toray will start providing samples.

The properties of these recycled materials are equivalent to those of PBT resin from virgin raw materials. This breakthrough should contribute to efforts to reduce carbon footprints. Toray obtained verification for its new products based on ISO 14021:2016 (see note) from SGS Japan Inc.

Recycling resins generally poses several challenges. They include contamination from foreign substances and materials and deteriorating materials quality. Toray can provide recycled PBT resin whose quality is as good as that of virgin material by undertaking chemical recycling, which entails by integrating quality control for chemicals recycling, from depolymerization through compounding.

Toray is additionally developing chemical- and material-recycled grades using post-consumer recycled material derived from recovered products.

It will commercialize such recycled PBT products as Ecouse TORAYCON™, an eco-friendly resin material.

One goal of the Toray Group Sustainability Vision for 2050 is to contribute to a world where resources are sustainably managed. The company will cater to customer demand for environmentally friendly resins as part of ongoing efforts to realize its corporate philosophy of contributing to society through the creation of new value.

Note: ISO 14021 is the international standard for Environmental labels and declarations – Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labeling). SGS Japan Inc., the local subsidiary of SGS SA., the world’s leading testing, inspection, and certification company, verified Toray’s chemical-recycled PBT resin product.

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