Mitsubishi Steps Up Plastics Recycling

Mitsubishi Electric Corp., based in Tokyo, has announced that it has achieved a technological breakthrough aimed at boosting the use of recycled plastics.

The company developed a technology to sort polypropylene, polystyrene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene from mixed plastics with purity levels of more than 99 percent.

It is the first Japanese company to collect the three major plastics from mixed plastics with such high purity levels.

The company will begin using the technology next fall and expects to expand its use of recycled plastics in products by about 7,000 tons per year. The technology will also cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 6,700 tons by curbing the production of new plastics.