Sumitomo Opens PVC Recycling Operation

Sumitomo Corp., the international business conglomerate based in Tokyo, is investing close to $500 million in an arrangement Refineverse Inc., a polyvinyl chloride interior waste material recycling venture business.

Sumitomo will sell the recycled polyvinyl chloride compounds and sheets, produced by Refineverse, to flooring and construction material manufacturers domestically and overseas, while selling ECO mark-certified tile carpets for offices that are made of recycled materials.

Refineverse is a holding company, which was mainly established by Gomisho Inc, a company involved in the business of waste material collection and transportation. The company owns technologies, with 16 related patents pending, for refrigerating, dicing and pulverizing polyvinyl chloride interior waste materials into the size of several hundred microns to make them recyclable.

With the investment from Sumitomo, the company is planning on building a manufacturing plant in Japan that will increase production capacity by 300 percent by 2007.

Waste materials subject to recycling will range diversely from tile carpet for offices, hard flooring materials and wallpaper that are polyvinyl chloride interior materials, to construction and automotive materials.