Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and Idemitsu Kosan  announced the joint start of a demonstration test on the recycling of marine plastic waste .

MOL Group company Nihon Tug-Boat has installed an automated marine debris collection device called “Seabin”  at the Hiroshima Municipal Pier, which is used as a base for tugboats, with the aim of promoting marine environment conservation. In the demonstration test, Idemitsu Kosan subsidiary Chemical Recycle Japan using the marine plastic waste collected by Seabin as raw material, produce generated oil by its technology of recycling of used plastics into oil.

Through a series of these initiatives, Idemitsu Kosan will confirm the availability of generated oil as a raw material for petrochemical products and fuel oils and verify the feasibility of recycling marine plastic waste. In the future, Idemitsu aims to produce “Renewable Chemicals” and “Renewable Fuel Oil” (Note 3) with its oil refining and petrochemical equipment, using generated oil derived from marine plastic waste as raw material

The MOL Group has positioned environmental strategy as one of the key elements of its “BLUE ACTION 2035” management plan. The company has also set “conservation for marine and global environmental” as one of its sustainability issues (materiality), and established the “MOL Group Environmental Vision 2.2” to demonstrate its targets and actions. Along with initiatives to protect the marine environment, including the collection of marine plastic waste, the entire group is engaged in reducing the impact of various activities on the global environment as it seeks to address climate change and protect biodiversity. The group contributes to the sustainable growth of people, society, and the Earth, and ensures a prosperous future from the blue oceans.

Toward the realization of a carbon-neutral society in 2050, Idemitsu Kosan has set forth its vision for 2030, “Your Reliable Partner for a Brighter Future,” and its vision for 2050, “Shaping Change.” In the Medium-term Business Plan (fiscal years 2023-2025) announced last November, we expressed our commitment to fulfill our “Responsibility to support people and their daily lives” and “Responsibility to protect the global environment now and in the future” through social implementation in the following “3 business domains.”

The initiative to recycle marine plastic waste is an important initiative for social implementation of “Diverse resource conservation / circulation solutions”, one of the three business areas stated in the company’s medium-term management plan.

Through the demonstration test, both companies will work to realize a carbon-neutral and recycling-oriented society and to pursue marine environmental conservation.