PET REFINE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. (President & Executive Officer: Daigo Iga; hereinafter “PET REFINE TECHNOLOGY”), a group company of JEPLAN, INC. (Representative Director, President & Executive Officer: Masaki Takao; hereinafter “JEPLAN”), has entered into an agreement titled the “Agreement on the Implementation of Horizontal Recycling of PET Bottles” with Bibai City (Mayor: Hisashi Sakurai), Asahi Soft Drinks Co., Ltd. (President & Representative Director: Taichi YONEME; hereinafter “Asahi Soft Drinks”), and Japan Tech Co., Ltd. (President & Representative Director: Eiichi Furusawa; hereinafter “Japan Tech”) on February 17, with the aim of promoting the circular use of PET bottles in Japan. A signing ceremony was also held on the same day to formally execute the agreement.

Under this agreement, used PET bottles collected from households in Bibai City will be recycled into raw materials for new PET bottles by combining two recycling methods: chemical recycling*¹ by Pet Refine Technology and mechanical recycling*² by Japan Tech. Asahi Soft Drinks will utilize these two recycling methods to manufacture and sell beverage products that use recycled PET resin. Through this initiative, the four parties will work together to improve the horizontal recycling rate of PET bottles. This initiative not only helps reduce the consumption of petroleum-derived PET resin, which is the raw material for PET bottles, but also contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated during the manufacturing process.

Chemical recycling breaks down used PET bottles to the molecular level and removes impurities such as dyes and metals, enabling PET products that are difficult to recycle with conventional recycling due to their shape or other reasons to be recycled into recycled PET resin of quality equivalent to that derived from petroleum. In this initiative, PET Refine Technology chemically recycles the powdered PET components generated in the mechanical recycling process conducted by Japan TEC, thereby further improving the recycling rate compared to mechanical recycling alone. This two-step recycling method achieves a high horizontal recycling rate and promotes “bottle-to-bottle" resource recycling.

The JEPLAN Group will continue to promote collaboration with domestic and overseas partners to realize its mission of "We circulate our world", and the group as a whole will strive to drive the circular economy.

*1 A method to recycle PET bottles into raw materials of the same quality as petroleum-derived PET resin by breaking them down 
      to the molecular level, removing impurities, and polymerizing them.
*2 Recycling PET bottles by sorting, crushing, washing, and removing impurities under high temperature.

Signing Ceremony for the Agreement on the Implementation of Bottle-to-Bottle Recycling of PET Bottles

	(From left to right) Hirofumi Kobayashi, Director and General Manager of Corporate Planning Department, Japan Tec Co., Ltd.; Masahiro Miura, General Manager of CSV Strategy Department, Future Creation Department, Asahi Soft Drinks Co., Ltd.; Hisashi Sakurai, Mayor of Bibai City; Daigo Iga, President and Representative Director of PET REFINE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.

■ Bottle-to-bottle recycling initiatives promoted by the JEPLAN Group
     (https://bringbottle.jeplan.co.jp/)

The JEPLAN Group is promoting bottle-to-bottle recycling initiatives in cooperation with local governments throughout Japan. Our goal is to create a society in which objects that have reached the end of their useful lives are recycled as valuable resources rather than as waste. As part of this initiative, we are implementing the “Welcome Back PET Bottle Action”, an activity to collect PET bottles and recycle them back into PET bottles. In Japan, approximately 650,000 tons*3of PET bottles are manufactured and sold annually. The recycling rate is about 85%*4.However, only about 38%*5of PET bottles are recycled as PET bottles. We aim to achieve bottle-to-bottle recycling of the remaining 62%, and are working to further promote resource recycling. *3,4,5PET Bottle Recycling Annual Report 2025 (PET Bottle Recycling Promotion Council):         https://www.petbottle-rec.gr.jp/nenji/2025/2025.pdf

■  Bibai City (https://www.city.bibai.hokkaido.jp/)
Mayor: Hisashi Sakurai

■ Asahi Soft Drinks Co., Ltd. (https://www.asahiinryo.co.jp/index.psp.html)
President and Representative Director: Taichi YONEME

■ Japan Tech Co., Ltd. (https://www.jtech-u.co.jp/)
President and Representative Director: Eiichi Furusawa

【The original press release is in Japanese】
【JEPLANプレスリリース】ペットリファインテクノロジー、美唄市・アサヒ飲料・ジャパンテックと「ペットボトルの水平リサイクルの実施に関する協定書」を締結.PDF