ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has concluded an agreement (hereinafter the agreement) with TerraCycle, Inc. (headquartered in New Jersey, USA; CEO: Tom Szaky; hereinafter “TerraCycle®”). With the signing of this agreement, ITOCHU will make a full-scale entry into the recycling business.

Recently, developments concerning the problem of disposable plastic are drawing attention both in Japan and overseas, and calls have been made for measures to combat the issue.

In Japan, around 14% of plastic garbage output as waste is processed by simple incineration, landfill and other methods without being recycled. For an additional 63% of plastic waste, Japan relies on other incineration-type solutions referred to as “thermal recycling” or “waste-to-energy.” For this reason, there are calls to promote the recycling of plastic resources by material recycling, in which used products are recovered not as garbage, but as valuable resources, and recycled and reused as new materials.

TerraCycle® is a pioneering recycling company that collects items of garbage that are difficult to recycle, and recycles them into various products, based on its mission of “Eliminating the Idea of Waste®” by recycling the “non-recyclable.” The company currently operates business operations in 21 countries, working in cooperation with major consumer products manufacturers, retailers, cities and facilities to collect and recycle items of garbage—such as used diapers, cigarette butts and empty product containers and packaging—which conventionally could only be discarded and incinerated, or disposed of as landfill.

ITOCHU regards ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) issues as critical to its business operations. By cooperating with TerraCycle® globally through this agreement, ITOCHU will work to promote the development of recycling businesses worldwide, particularly in Japan and elsewhere in Asia.

Moreover, through the combination of TerraCycle’s network of brand owners, recycling technologies, recycling program operational expertise with the ITOCHU Group’s global and domestic network, ITOCHU will seek to create new business models in the recycling field, and drive the creation of a recycling-based society with a view to sustainable global development.