TOYO INK and Lion jointly develop "horizontal recycling" from refill packs to refill packs Unique peel recycling technology recycles surplus materials from manufacturing into products

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The joint development of artience group TOYO INK CO., LTD. (President and Representative Director Hideki Yasuda, Chuo-ku, Tokyo) and Lion Corporation (Representative Director and President Operating Officers Masayuki Takemori, Taito-ku, Tokyo) has realized the "horizontal recycling" of refill packs.
The packaging materials for Lion Corporation's "Akron Floral Bouquet Scent Refill Large", which will be released in May, will be reused as high-quality recycled materials that were not used as products during the production of the "Look Plus Bathtub Cleansing Refill Large Size" refill pack that was commercialized in '24. This is achieved through the continuous improvement of artience group 's "peel recycling technology" that has been proven for many years, which separates films of different materials and removes printing inks from the film.

Our Initiatives for Sustainability Contribution

In its Sustainability Vision ASV 2050/2030 (* 1), artience group has set one of its goals to contribute to sustainability by 2050, and is promoting initiatives to recycle plastic resources and reduce plastic waste (* 2).
Of the total 9.11 million tons of waste plastic emissions in Japan, about 40% are packaging, containers, etc./containers, including film packaging called "flexible packaging" such as refill packs. On the other hand, only 20% of waste plastics are processed by material recycling, and most of them are processed by thermal recycling (energy recovery through combustion) (* 3).
Flexible packaging is multi-layered to ensure different performance requirements for each application, and multiple materials such as printing inks and adhesives are used between plastic films such as polyolefin and polyester. The "printing inks" and "adhesives", which are essential for packaging, are designed to not be easily peeled off from the plastic, so they are difficult to remove during the recycling process, and because high-quality recycled plastic cannot be extracted, the use of recycled plastic is limited to transportation pallets and civil engineering and construction materials. It was one of the factors that hindered the recycling of high-quality materials in packaging.
artience group, which has the top market share in packaging inks and adhesives, has established this ink and adhesives stripping technology and built a recycling system, such as product sample sheets for vending machines (* 4) and conductive sheets (* 5). We are working on the recycling of used plastics in various fields.

* 1 Sustainability Vision ASV2050/2030
https://www. artience group.com/ja/corporate/info/strategy.html#a03
* 2 Basic Approach to Resource Recycling
https://www. artience group.com/ja/corporate/sustainability/environment/resource-circulation/
* 3 Plastic Recycling Association "2024 Production, Disposal, Recycling, and Disposal of Plastic Products (Material Flow Diagram)"
* 4 TOYO INK Co-production, Toyobo Established a "horizontal recycling" scheme for product sample sheets for vending machines
https://www. artience group.com/ja/news/2025/25110701.html
* 5 Started horizontal recycling demonstration test of conductive sheet
https://www. artience group.com/ja/news/2025/25111001.html

Peeling and recycling technology

The "Peel Recycling Technology" developed by artience group enables the recovery and reuse of high-purity polyethylene films by alkaliizing the crushed double-layer film and dissolving the adhesives to remove the film and separate it using the specific gravity difference of the film. By continuously improving our peel recycling technology with Lion Corporation, in November 2024, we commercialized refill packs that can be easily recycled by peeling off films of different materials (Figure 1).
This time, the scraps generated during the manufacturing process of refill packs were peeled off from the surface film and polyethylene film at a pilot plant in artience group, and high-purity recycled polyethylene was collected. Since we were able to confirm that the recycled polyethylene obtained has good performance as a refill film, we decided to use the "Akron Floral Bouquet Scent Refill Size" in limited quantities (Fig. 2). To show that this recycled material is used, a special icon is displayed on the back of the refill pack (Fig. 3).

Figure 1: Peeling and separation techniques using peeling adhesives

Figure 2: Laminated film that was not used as a product is recycled into a refill pack

Figure 3: Dedicated icon to indicate that recycled material is used

Future prospects

In order to realize the social implementation of recycling, it is necessary to work across society as a whole, transcending industry boundaries. artience group is expanding the adoption of packaging materials using peel recycling technology, increasing the amount of recycled plastic, and expanding the use of recycled plastics, and is looking for organizations that can be jointly considered, including not only the daily necessities industry but also other industries such as the food industry. In addition to material development, we have signed joint development agreements with Aikawa Iron Works Co., Ltd. and Hagiwara Industries Co., Ltd., and are working on the development of processes and production machines such as cleaning, deinking, separation of different materials, and recycling to achieve higher quality plastic recycling using their respective technologies, such as materials, machinery, and processes.
By collaborating with our partners in various ways to build a recycling system, we at artience group will promote the recycling of used plastics and contribute to the realization of a recycling-oriented society towards the realization of a sustainable society.