Toray will launch a full-scale promotion of chemical recycling for its nylon 6 uniform business after having obtained "country-wide approval" a preferential measure of the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law. Targeting government offices and private companies, it will put on sale uniforms using nylon 6 including rain apparel, warm clothing and work clothes which will be reconstituted into the raw material by chemical recycling after being collected to reuse in the production of nylon 6 again. The company is planning to collect 8,000 items (5 tons) in the first year and 60,000 items (40 tons) in three years.

Flow of recycling system of Toray for nylon 6 uniforms

The flow of this recycling system is that Toray will promote uniforms (rain apparel, warm clothing and work clothes) using its nylon 6 labeled with the "Recycle Mark" issued by the Ecological Life and Culture Organization, a charitable corporation and a subordinate agency of the Ministry of the Environment, and collect used items through the distribution network of Nippon Express. Collected uniforms will be reconstituted into the raw material, caprolactam, in its facility at the Nagoya Plant and reused for the production of nylon 6 which will be promoted for various applications.

According to Toray, producing nylon 6 by chemical recycling uses about 30% of the energy for the production of conventional oil-based nylon 6 and, what is more, produces only 30% of the carbon dioxide so that large energy savings can be expected.