#Recycling / Circular Economy

2020-07-02

Teijin Aramid’s wants to “close the chain”

Teijin Aramid has today published its 2019 Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) Report. The report outlines Teijin Aramid’s recent progress as it strives for a sustainable and fully circular aramid value chain. Teijin Aramid takes responsibility for improving the entire value chain across different industries, including aviation, automotive, and construction.

With the support of the new Energy Transition & Circular Economy department, the company is now exploring new technologies and partnerships more deeply, to achieve its sustainability and circularity goals. Teijin Aramid invites its suppliers, customers, and end users to join to help “close the chain”.

Clear progress on sustainability

As detailed in the new HSE Report, in 2019 Teijin Aramid avoided the emission of more than 215,000 tons of CO2 due to the use of Twaron®, a high-performance aramid, in applications such as tires and conveyor belts. The company’s solution helps to make these applications considerably lighter, saving energy and other resources. Teijin Aramid also met its Energy Efficiency Plan (EEP) targets for 2017-2020, having achieved a 6.2% energy saving across its manufacturing locations in the Netherlands during this period.

Collaborating for a sustainable value chain

Teijin Aramid’s progress on sustainability has been made possible through the combination of its long-standing internal efforts and strong external partnerships with customers and suppliers. To build on this, the company is seeking intensified collaboration across the value chain to minimize impact on the environment, use less energy, and generate less waste and emissions. The sustainability efforts are implemented across three levels: energy efficiency and energy transition, which contribute to sustainability across industries, and a new level, “closing the chain”. This third level refers to the collaborative ownership Teijin Aramid takes for recycling products at end-of-life and giving new life to products, again and again. Teijin Aramid’s ultimate goal is a fully sustainable, circular aramid chain with a finite use of resources on the basis of 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Peter ter Horst, newly appointed CEO of Teijin Aramid: “Sustainability has historically been embedded in our company and continues to drive Teijin Aramid’s approach to product development, innovation, and collaboration. We care about our impact on the planet and how this affects future generations, and we seek to actively contribute to a better world. We’ve made great progress by reaching our Energy Efficiency Plan targets and avoiding more and more greenhouse gas emissions during use of our products. Now, our new Energy Transition & Circular Economy department is looking for other innovative ways to improve. This means our ambitions have grown, and for that, we need more collaboration across industries. Together we can close the chain and make the industry circular.”

Exploring new innovations in recycling

Teijin Aramid is meeting its responsibilities as a market leader and frontrunner by testing new methods for recycling aramids. Recycling has been in place at Teijin Aramid for more than 15 years. It involves reprocessing used aramid yarn recovered from end-of-life applications for reuse. However, reusing of end-of-life aramids can be challenging, as used materials are often only available with extreme differences in composition and quality. Teijin Aramid is now exploring a range of new never-used-before techniques for aramid recycling, to determine the most effective options for its needs.

Teijin Aramid’s 2019 HSE report is available at:

http://www.teijinaramid.com/en/sustainability.

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