We Taishoboseki initiated the “Upcycling Project” as SDGs promoting project.  Have you ever heard “upcycling”?  In short, the term “upcycling” can be referred to as “the process of converting discarded materials into something more useful, valuable, and aesthetic.”

We had a business meeting with Sanyo Paper Co., Ltd located in Sennann city, Osaka, which is nearby our spinning plant.  Sanyo Paper Cor., Ltd is a papermaker that thrives to contribute to a sustainable society through recycling materials.  Their management philosophy was completely reformed in 2007, which was the year of the 50^th anniversary of the establishment.  Since Sanyo Paper Cor, Ltd has the same goal as Taishoboseki is aiming for, both of us have decided to take two measures together.

The first initiative is the participation in “PELP”, which is the business carried out by Sanyo Paper Co., Ltd.  This is the upcycling service, which recycles copy paper into fully recycled paper.  More specifically, the first step is that Sanyo Paper Co., Ltd collects the copy paper with the designated collecting bag “PELP! BAG.”  Secondly, they return it into the recycled paper.  Finally, this recycled paper could renew it into a special product.

The status quo faces the low tendency of recycling due to the difficulty of collecting the photocopy paper.  Handling confidential documents is troublesome when copy paper is collected ordinarily, whereas the copy paper gathered in PELP! BAG is not.  PELP! BAG is a reasonable tool.  All we have to do is to put some photocopy papers in the PELP! BAG, then it gradually starts to disintegrate those confidential documents.  Most importantly, this PELP! BAG is supposed not to be revealed by others, so it protects confidentiality throughout the procedures during transportation, storage, and disintegration.

By the way, there is also another service, “KAMITORE”, which enables traceability of the recycling paper.  This transparent service is efficient in tracing various recycling conditions.  KAMITORE clarifies following these kinds of questions, “which company collects the photocopy paper?”, “how this photocopy paper has been remanufactured into paper products?”  Anyways, we Taishoboseki took an initiative by utilizing the amazing PELP! BAG.

Another initiative we will take is the upcycling that uses the waste, reused cotton, the stuff produced during the spinning process.  We were exhilarated with the upcoming idea of making the office supplies such as envelopes and business cards from the recycled paper.  To begin with, we are going to create some samples.  We cannot tell you details right now, but we will show you the outcome when it is completed!!