Environmental Protection

Reducing Industrial Waste

Here at the Mitsui Chemicals Group, we have made a commitment to the minimization*1 of industrial waste at domestic manufacturing sites and all production sites operated by domestic and overseas consolidated subsidiaries by fiscal 2016, as one of the targets set out under our Grand Design. We similarly set ourselves the target of minimizing industrial waste at all production sites in Japan, and limiting the average landfill rate for production sites outside Japan, to no more than 5% by fiscal 2012 as one of the targets under our Fiscal 2009 Mid-Term Business Plan.

We have managed to achieve and maintain minimization at all seven of our domestic manufacturing sites with the exception of the Omuta Works.
We are conducting pilot operation and making modifications to the solid industrial waste incinerator at the Omuta Works and expect to start commercial operation in the near future. This will enable us to treat industrial waste generated at the works, bringing us significantly closer to achieving minimization from fiscal 2012 onwards.

Whereas many of the products supplied by our domestic subsidiaries are made by processing and adding value to our own products, most of our overseas subsidiaries mass-produce commodity chemicals. Given that waste treatment regulations and industrial structure differ from country to country, there are many issues that we need to address in order to advance minimization outside Japan. We are nonetheless united in our groupwide commitment to reducing landfill disposal, by actively reducing and recycling waste at each of our sites.

As the average landfill rate for industrial waste at all domestic subsidiaries*2 came to 1% or less in fiscal 2011, we have already achieved our fiscal 2012 minimization target ahead of schedule. We have maintained an average landfill rate of 1% or less at our overseas subsidiaries*2 ever since fiscal 2010, coming in at 0.4% for fiscal 2011.

We are determined to achieve minimization at the Omuta Works in fiscal 2012, so that we can achieve overall minimization at all of our domestic manufacturing sites and subsidiaries, whilst at the same time striving to further reduce volumes of industrial waste.

*1 : Minimization of industrial waste: Maintaining a landfill disposal rate of 1% or less of industrial waste generated
*2 : For statistical purposes, “domestic and overseas subsidiaries” refers to production sites operated by consolidated subsidiaries and companies eligible for RC support (25 in Japan, 20 overseas)

Landfill disposal of industrial waste

The industrial waste process (Mitsui Chemicals)

*
Amount reduced internally: Amount reduced as a result of waste plastic incineration, waste acid neutralization, etc.
*
Amount recycled: Includes waste plastic recycling and the reuse of waste oil as fuel
*
Waste generated: Sludge (dry weight), waste plastics, soot and dust, etc.
*
Any minor discrepancies in percentages are due to rounding.

The process of reducing industrial waste disposal