Updated by "Forest Circular Economy" Editorial Board on June 20, 2025, 10:00 PM JST
Editorial Board, Forest Circular Economy
Forestcircularity-editor
We aim to realize "Vision 2050: Japan Shines, Forest Circular Economy" promoted by the Platinum Forest Industry Initiative. We will disseminate ideas and initiatives to promote biomass chemistry, realize wooden cities, and encourage innovation in the forestry industry in order to fully utilize forest resources to decarbonize, strengthen economic security, and create local communities.
Oji Holdings and its group company Oji Nepia, in cooperation with Hoshino Resort, have started a horizontal recycling program to transform used paper hand towels from hotels and restaurants into new "nepia hand towels. The company will contribute to the realization of a recycling-oriented society by reducing waste and promoting the effective use of resources.
Horizontal recycling is a method of manufacturing the same type of product using used products as raw materials, which saves resources and reduces CO2 emissions. Since July 2024, Hoshino Resort has been collecting paper cups used at its facilities and recycling them into "nepia hand towels. In this initiative, paper hand towels will be collected at four Hoshino Resort facilities and reincarnated as hand towels again in order to further accelerate the resource recycling movement.
Used paper hand towels have low solubility because they are strong enough to resist tearing even after absorbing water. In addition, they are difficult to recycle due to stain and odor problems. Since there were no collection routes, they were generally incinerated.
However, Oji Holdings has improved solubility at Oji Nepia's cooperative plant using proprietary technology. The company has succeeded in efficiently recovering and reprocessing the fiber content (pulp). Furthermore, in cooperation with partner company Tsuchihashi, a collection and delivery route was established that utilizes the existing logistics network. As a result, a system for recycling used paper hand towels into new products has been established.
Dedicated collection boxes were installed at four facilities that use a large amount of paper hand towels: Hoshinoya Karuizawa, Karuizawa Hotel Breston Court, Karuizawa Hoshino Area Village Restaurant, and Resonale Yatsugatake. 58.3 kg of used paper hand towels were collected during the test period from January 15, 2025 to February 14, 2025. 58.3 kg of used paper hand towels were collected during the test period from January 15 to February 14, 2025. This is equivalent to approximately 700 kg per year, and when converted to "nepia hand towels" containing 200 sheets per pack, 2,917 packs are expected to be reprocessed annually.
As demand for paper grows as an alternative material to plastics, interest in material recycling, in which used products are reused as raw materials, is also growing. This initiative is groundbreaking in that it has made it possible to recycle resources from products that were previously considered difficult to recycle. This system, which creates new products from paper products discharged from hotels, restaurants, and other holiday and recreation areas, has the potential to lead to the creation of resource recycling models in other industries and regions.
