June/8/2021

Recently, we visited Sanyo Paper Co., Ltd.,

Turn brown cotton into the recycled paper

We saw the moment that brown cotton was reborn as paper.

The upcycling project utilizing fallen brown cotton (Brown Ochi-wata) is on track.

“Ochi-wata” is a short fiber generated in the process of making yarn. It can be reused in versatile ways. This is a project that recycles fallen brown cotton into something new and valuable.

The first step is to mix finely cut brown cotton and pulp made from recycled milk cartons.

The ratio of brown cotton to the recycled pulp is 13% brown cotton and 87% recycled pulp.

Next, the mixture of brown cotton and recycled pulp enters the final procedure after being removed contaminants.

Finally, brown cotton recycled paper with a thickness of 200g/m² is now ready.

Custom-made recycled paper, such as the one produced by Sanyo Paper this time, is carefully made at a speed that is 20% slower than ordinary production on purpose, and a lot of love is put into it.

Sanyo Paper Co. Ltd. has introduced renewable energy sources.

Sanyo Paper Co. is carefully utilizing the 2,000 tons of water it uses each day.

The company uses all groundwater and reuses water with an advanced wastewater treatment system that has the function of activated carbon treatment.

What we want to emphasize here is that this reused water is clean enough to be returned to the river, the habitats of fish.

We were impressed by the words of Mr. Hasegawa of Sanyo Paper Corporation, “we are willing to aim to create a mill that the local people can make sure their safety with their own eyes.
Through touring the factory, we were able to figure out what kinds of things we can improve in the factory.

Our factory, like Sanyo Paper’s factory, is a large site, and so it would seem like a maze for visitors coming there for the first time.

This makes it difficult for them to find restrooms and other facilities.

At the Sanyo Paper Mill, the direction to the restroom is illustrated with arrow marks so anyone could easily understand.

Even if visitors would not say their complaints directly to us, we shall make small changes to improve the environment and, in turn, reduce their unnecessary stress while touring the factory.
We felt that this visible kindness would lead to the creation of a worker-friendly environment.

One of the SDGs is not to leave anyone out of our society.

Taishoboseki aims to build up a safe and secure environment not only for our workers but also for visitors participating in our factory tour.

Written by a new employee, Ms. Matsumoto