Lang
Japan’s Suntory Group, a beverage brewing and distilling company, plans to introduce PET bottles made with para-xylene derived from used cooking oil (UCO) for some of its products.
Starting this month, the material will be used in around 45 million PET bottles, with plans to expand its use across the company’s product portfolio, Suntory said on October 28.
PET resin, the raw material used to make PET bottles, consists of 30% monoethylene glycol (MEG) and 70% terephthalic acid (TPA).
Although Suntory has used plant-derived materials to produce MEG in its Suntory Tennensui brand bottles since 2013, the company said the use of para-xylene derived from used cooking oil makes it possible to produce TPA on a commercial scale.
As part of the initiative, the group has established a global supply chain in cooperation with companies such as ENEOS Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation to supply bio-naphtha derived from used cooking oil for PET bottle production.
Bio-naphtha can be produced as part of the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production process, among other routes. With SAF production expected to grow, developing a bio-naphtha supply chain is becoming increasingly important, the company said.
Suntory plans to build a more robust mass-production system for bio-based PET bottles in cooperation with relevant partners.
In September 2023, Suntory Holdings announced a collaboration with leading Asian energy company ENEOS to collect used cooking oil in Japan.
The group is also considering using this collaboration to produce bio-based PET bottles with domestically produced bio-naphtha from ENEOS Corporation’s SAF plant, which is expected to become operational after 2027.
Under Suntory Group’s Plastic Policy established in 2019, the company aims to use only recycled or bio-based materials for all PET bottles used globally by 2030 and eliminate virgin petroleum-based materials.
To reach this target, the group has worked for about 20 years to reduce the weight of PET bottles, caps, and labels based on its 2R+B strategy: reduce, recycle, and bio-based materials.
The group has also promoted horizontal bottle-to-bottle recycling in Japan through agreements with more than 100 municipalities and over 40 companies, while introducing recycled PET bottles into its products.
As of 2023, more than half of the soft drink bottles sold in Japan used 100% recycled PET bottles, the company said.