JBMIA Commercializes Recycled Polystyrene with 90 wt% PCR for Office Equipment

The Japan Business Machine and Information System Industries Association (JBMIA) announced the commercial deployment of a standardized recycled polystyrene (PS) compound developed jointly across the printing equipment industry, according to PR TIMES prtimes.jpPR TIMESprtimes.jpOpen source ↗.

To balance material supply and performance, the project engineered a "hybrid PCR" formulation combining PS recovered from four major categories of home appliances with resin recovered from office automation devices. This formulation achieved a post-consumer recycled (PCR) content of 90 wt% while matching the mechanical specifications of virgin plastic.

The initiative standardized resin requirements across manufacturers by focusing on general-purpose colors, specifically gray and black, to minimize property variance. The joint scheme integrates supply lines, material compounding, and quality assurance, enabling horizontal closed-loop recycling in mass-production commercial hardware.

JBMIA plans to expand this shared autonomous recycling model beyond polystyrene to additional polymers, including acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) prtimes.jpPR TIMESprtimes.jpOpen source ↗.