According to the company’s website news release on March 27, 2023, Toyobo Co., Ltd. and Toyoshina Film K.K., a Toyobo Group company, have received ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) Plus certification, an international certification designed to confirm the sustainable content of products. Toyobo is scheduled to start selling a bio-based, biaxially-oriented polypropylene (OPP) film as an ISCC Plus-certified product in autumn 2023. The properties of bio-based raw materials in the OPP film to be manufactured by Toyoshina Film will be assigned to a portion of the product based on the mass balance approach*1.
ISCC Plus certification, which is part of the ISCC certification system, is aimed at confirming that mainly bio-based feedstocks and recyclables are properly managed in the process of turning raw materials into final products in the entire supply chain using the mass balance approach.
The Toyobo Group has focused on developing eco-friendly films, including “BIOPLANATM,” a packaging film made with a mixture of biomass-based and non-bio-based ingredients. In a new approach aimed at supporting the supply of bio-based films, Toyobo will sell OPP films whose bio-based ingredients, including waste cooking oil, are assigned to a portion of the products using the mass balance approach. This biomass OPP film, which has performance levels equivalent to OPP films that use only petroleum-based ingredients, is mainly used for food packaging.
Under its Sustainable Vison 2030*2 unveiled on May 26, 2022, the Toyobo Group has set a goal of raising the ratio of green films*3 to 60 percent in fiscal 2030 and 100 percent in fiscal 2050. Taking this ISCC Plus certification as an opportunity*4, Toyobo will broaden its lineup of film products using bio-based raw materials, thus helping to realize a circular economy.
*1: A method in which during the process of turning raw materials into final products and the distribution process, raw materials with certain properties (e.g., bio-based raw materials) are mixed with raw materials that do not have the properties (e.g.,petroleum-based raw materials); the properties are thus assigned to a portion of the product according to the input of the raw materials having those properties. (Source: Ministry of Environment, “Roadmap for Bioplastics Introduction.”)
*2: Toyobo “Sustainable Vision 2030”
*3: The use of recycled or bio-based raw materials and volume reduction of films.
*4: Toyobo Co., Ltd. and Toyoshina Film K.K. pledge that they will abide by the latest ISCC regulations and meet the ISCC Plus requirements.
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