@Toyota: Toyota Tsusho Group Company Planic Won Minister of the Environment Awards for Climate Action 2025

Toyota Tsusho Corporation (“Toyota Tsusho”) announced today that K.K. Planic (“Planic”), a group company of Toyota Tsusho, has received the Minister of the Environment Awards for Climate Action 2025. This award recognizes individuals and organizations that have made outstanding achievements in “climate change mitigation (measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) ” and “climate change adaptation (measures to avoid or mitigate damage caused by climate change) ” by the Ministry of the Environment.

“Car to car horizontal recycling using Japan’s largest-scale high-purity plastic sorting” (“this project”) conducted by Planic was recognized as an outstanding achievement in the field of climate change mitigation in the advanced introduction and positive practice category.

This project uses mixed plastics derived from automobiles and home appliances as raw materials to produce recycled plastics that can be used as raw materials for automotive parts and other applications. Traditionally, sorting mixed plastics by material has proven difficult. However, the sorting technology (“this technology”), which Planic introduced for the first time in Japan, enables the production of high-quality recycled plastics suitable that can be used in automotive parts and other applications. This technology is primarily a gravity separation technology that utilizes the differences in the specific gravity between resins. It was commercialized by Toyota Tsusho with support from the Ministry of the Environment’s “2015 Demonstration Project for Low-Carbon 3R Technologies and Systems.”

This project accepted approximately 12,000 tons of mixed plastic in FY2024, and there are plans for a phased expansion to 40,000 tons annually, one of the largest acceptances in Japan. Furthermore, it is projected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 51,000 t-CO₂ in the future.

Toyota Tsusho Group will continue to promote carbon neutrality, the circular economy, and nature positivity in and integrated manner as a good corporate citizen, strive to solve environmental issues, and help create a sustainable society to ” pass on a better Earth to the children of the future.”

Manufacturing Department Executive General Manager Tadatoshi Koike / President　Harumichi Yamashita / Director　Takayuki Hirayama

Overview of Planic

Planic’s Recycling Flow

*Minister of the Environment Awards for Climate Action 2025: https://www.env.go.jp/press/press_01705.html (in Japanese)