Circular society

The Idemitsu Group believes that the purpose of realizing a recycling-oriented society is to reform the society of mass production, mass consumption, and mass waste, while curbing the consumption of natural Resources and forming a society that reduces the burden on the environment as much as possible. We are promoting various initiatives to reuse renewable Resources within the scope of their regeneration capacity, and to consume non-renewable Resources in the most effective way possible, while curbing their use over the long term and shifting to other renewable Resources.

Based on the technology possessed by each department, our group is conducting a cross-company study aimed at realizing a sustainable circular business by reusing renewable Resources as much as possible and incorporating them into our business supply chain. We are making progress. Specifically, we are working on plastic recycling and, from a long-term perspective, carbon recycling, which treats CO₂ _​ as Resources.

We are accelerating our efforts to build a Resources recycling supply chain.
In April 2023, we decided to invest in an oil-to-chemical recycling facility that uses used plastics as raw material, and at the same time established Chemical Recycle Japan Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as CRJ) as a subsidiary of our company. CRJ is currently constructing an oil-to-chemical recycling facility in an area adjacent to our Chiba Complex that will process 20,000 tons of used plastics per year, with the aim of commencing commercial operation in 2026.
CRJ will use its proprietary technology to produce CR oil ^* equivalent to crude oil from recovered used plastics, which will then be processed in our oil refining and petrochemical facilities to be Resources into Basic Chemicals. By quickly establishing a new production system for "chemically recycled chemicals," we will contribute to the realization of Resources circulating society.
After establishing a business model in the area adjacent to Chiba Complex, we plan to install oil chemical recycling equipment at other Group Refineries/Complexes, and to proceed with large-scale business expansion targeting used plastics nationwide.

Supporting Gunpla through chemical recycling

The Gundam series plastic model "Gunpla" sold by Bandai Namco Group has been using polystyrene from group company PS Japan Co., Ltd. (PSJ) since its launch. “Gunpla” will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2020 and is a huge hit with over 700 million units sold. PSJ is participating in the "Gunpla Recycling Project" launched by the Bandai Namco Group in 2021 in terms of chemical recycling. This project aims to collect the ''runners'' that form the frame of ''Gunpla'' and commercialize plastic models through chemical recycling, the first in the world.
Chemical recycling technology is a cutting-edge technology that thermally decomposes used polystyrene products and returns them to their raw material, styrene monomer, and PSJ will continue to establish this technology through repeated demonstration experiments.

Compliance with the Act on Promotion of Resources Recycling of Plastics

Based on the Act on Promotion of Resources Circulation Related to Plastics, which came into effect on April 1, 2022, our amount of waste plastic emissions from fiscal 2021 onwards is as follows.

In the "Plastic Resources Circulation Strategy" formulated by the government in 2019, one of the milestones is to "reduce the cumulative amount of single-use plastic emissions by 25% by 2030," and in order to achieve this, we must reduce waste plastic emissions by an average of about 3% per year over the period. To achieve this, we will work on the following implementation items.

Every year, we educate our employees about the Act on Promotion of Resources Recycling of Plastics as part of our environmental management capability improvement training.

The amount of used solar panels is expected to increase sharply from the 2030s. Solar Frontier K.K., a member of our group, is preparing to promote the recycling of solar panels on a nationwide scale.

As EVs become more widespread, the supply and demand of raw materials such as lithium is expected to become tight in the long term. Through the investigation of a waste battery recycling scheme, we aim to increase the added value of all-solid lithium battery value chain in the future.

Collaboration with various companies, local governments, universities, and other research institutions is essential to realizing a recycling-oriented society, and we are engaged in a variety of collaborations as shown in the table below.

Carbon recycling is an initiative that treats CO₂ _​as a carbon Resources (carbon) and generates various carbon compounds from CO₂ _​to reuse it in chemicals, fuels, minerals, etc. Our company is currently conducting research and development on carbonation and CO₂ _​ electrolytic reduction technologies.

Calcium carbonate technology

We are working on developing technology to convert CO₂ into calcium carbonate and implementing it in provide for society. Specifically, we use unused calcium-containing waste as a raw material and synthesize and Resources calcium carbonate through a chemical reaction with CO₂. By expanding this to a variety of applications such as asphalt paving and concrete materials, we aim to achieve CO₂ fixation, effective utilization of waste, and Resources circulation.
In 2023, through joint research with Nippon Concrete Industries Co., Ltd., we established a manufacturing process for synthetic calcium carbonate (registered trademark Calcarbo®) that utilizes concrete waste. Furthermore, in March 2025, we completed the construction of actual manufacturing facilities within our concrete factory, establishing a full-scale mass production system. This facility uses concrete sludge, which was previously treated as industrial waste, and CO₂ in the boiler exhaust gas that serves as a heat source for the concrete factory, as raw materials.
We are also making steady progress in our efforts to put Calcarbo™ to provide for society. In collaboration with road companies, we plan to install Calcarbo™-mixed asphalt pavement at our company's Complex, public facilities, and general roads by August 2025, and we are continuing to evaluate its performance. In addition, we are working with general contractors to prototype and evaluate Calcarbo™-mixed concrete, with construction at actual construction sites scheduled for the near future.
We will continue to actively promote the diversification of raw materials and the expansion of product applications, contributing to the creation of a sustainable, recycling-oriented society.

CO₂ Resources

To date, we have succeeded in directly synthesizing hydrocarbons and alcohols from water and CO₂ _​using gas diffusion electrodes using proprietary catalysts. Conventionally, most methods involved reacting CO₂ _​once dissolved in water, but this method is unique in that it uses a gas diffusion electrode that allows CO₂ _​to react directly as a gas. In the CO₂ _​Resources recovery technology (electrolytic reduction technology) using this gas diffusion electrode, we are proceeding with development to further increase the CO₂ _​ processing capacity by improving the performance, lowering the cost, eliminating precious metals, and extending the life of the electrode catalyst. I am.
We will further advance our research and development of CO₂ _​electrolytic reduction technology using this gas diffusion electrode, and establish a technology that uses renewable energy to produce useful substances such as chemicals and fuels from CO₂ _​with high efficiency. We aim to contribute to achieving carbon neutrality in 2050 by reusing CO₂_​.