Integrated Report 2026 artience Strengths: Business Expansion with Unique Core Technologies

In recent years, there has been a growing sense of urgency worldwide regarding the various problems caused by plastic waste. Of the 400 million to 500 million tons of plastic produced annually worldwide, 11 million tons are said to flow into the oceans.
In Europe, which leads in the circular economy, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which sets recyclability for all packaging and reduces plastic packaging, will begin operation in August 2026. In Japan, the revised "Resource Utilization Promotion Act," which comprehensively strengthens product design, manufacturing, and recycling, will come into effect in April 2026, and there is no doubt that the global market for plastic recycling will continue to expand. That is why we believe that proactively developing recycling technologies needed worldwide will contribute to enhancing corporate value over the medium to long term.

At artience group, around 2019, we have been working on developing peeling and deinking recycling technology to recover recycled plastics from used plastic packaging as a company-wide project that transcends Group Companies boundaries.
Plastic film packaging, known as 'flexible packaging,' used in food and pharmaceuticals, has gradually become more functional through years of research and development. By stacking films and aluminum materials from different materials, different performance has been achieved for different applications, such as maintaining freshness and long-term storage.
On the other hand, these multilayer packaging faces challenges such as removing the adhesives used for bonding layers and ink used in package printing from plastic, making recycling difficult. Moreover, even after collecting and recycling plastics, quality issues such as coloring from residual ink remain, limiting their applications, and "horizontal recycling" that uses recycled plastics as raw materials for the same type of packaging has long been considered difficult.

In this context, our group has independently developed advanced peeling and deinking technologies that combine Group Companies 's diverse advanced technologies in various fields, such as resin synthesis and colorant synthesis, to recover high-purity plastics by removing adhesives and ink from used packaging. This made it possible to achieve both the "high functionality" and "ease of recyclability" of film packaging.

For social implementation, one of artience 's strengths lies not only in the relationships cultivated externally through years of packaging materials business but also in owning a large laboratory plant capable of conducting demonstration experiments. However, building such a circular economy cannot be achieved by individual companies alone; a scheme that crosses the artery and vein industry is necessary. In this context, we have been consciously considering how to increase the presence of artience while working to expand co-creation.
To ensure that the plastic recycled with this technology becomes practical in terms of quality, strength, and cost, we have collaborated with multiple brand owners and packaging material manufacturers to conduct thorough verification and improvements. Additionally, production equipment capable of operating under high productivity and efficiency has been closely collaborated with multiple machine manufacturers to jointly develop it. A joint development with Lion Corporation, one of the brand owners actively participating in these initiatives, quickly bore fruit. We have decided to commercialize the company's detergent refill pouches using high-quality recycled plastic using our technology. Currently, we are conducting verification for full-scale commercialization (as of May 2026).
The ability to enable "horizontal recycling" in film packaging is a major step toward expanding plastic recycling schemes. Going forward, we hope to support this trend by widely deploying this peeling and deinking technology in collaboration with even more stakeholders.

Resource Circulation of Plastic Packaging Aimed at by Peeling and Deinking Technology

Plastic packaging, said to embody the pinnacle of cutting-edge technology, also carries the negative image of being a "source of waste." When I was a rookie in gravure ink sales, I was shocked when customers told me, 'What we make will eventually become waste.' Still, I wanted to work with pride and think about the future of the entire package, so I obtained the 'Packaging Specialist *' qualification. By participating in committees where qualified professionals gather, everyone is thinking about the future of packaging 10 or 20 years from now.

As a businessperson involved in the plastics industry, I want to further improve the quality of plastic recycling, create new value by saying, 'Used plastic packaging is not garbage, but a core resource supporting the circular economy,' and promote a paradigm shift in society as a whole. To achieve this, we intend to expand the "co-creation circle" by crossing the broad industry boundaries involved in this scheme and sometimes joining forces with competitors. At the same time, we want to spread the schemes and concepts we have developed this time as concepts for artience group 's overall technology and business development. The circular economy is a theme that will greatly transform future manufacturing, and we are confident that it is the "value" that artience group should provide going forward.

• Packaging Specialist: A private qualification established by the Japan Packaging Technology Association, certifying the highest level of packaging technology experts in Japan.