Trial for Circular Renewables Platform Providing an Effective System to Match Supply and Demand for Plastics and other Recyclable Resources to Promote a Circular Economy

Project Members’ Roles and Points of Collaboration

This platform will combine the circular renewables platform developed by Recotech, Material Pool System, with NTT Com’s Smart Data Platform to help participating businesses visualize type, volume, and location of waste generated in real time and accumulate waste data. Sojitz’s consolidated subsidiary, Nissho Electronics Corporation, will work on system development, while Sojitz will attract partners to utilize this platform.

Trial Period

April 2021 – March 2022

Business Model

This platform will help to visualize the quality and amount of supply for recyclable resources and facilitate sales between suppliers and users in order to contribute to the realization of a circular economy. Improvements will be made to continuous UI/UX through this trial. Additional functions are also under consideration such as quality assurance of renewables, as well as mapping of optimal distribution routes, and the aim is for all partner companies to experience the value provided by this platform.

Main Offerings

（１）This platform will utilize IoT to visualize the type, volume, and location of recyclable waste for each participating business. Data accumulated can be analyzed as part of the platform’s function, which helps to determine whether supply and demand needs can be met and to project via AI analysis the volume of renewable resources that will be generated. As a result, this platform can help to ensure stable supply and demand.

（２）This platform’s functions include facilitating the sale of recyclable resources between participating businesses. Suppliers who were previously forced to discard recyclables from lack of demand can be matched to users with no means of procurement, helping to realize effective recycling of resources. Future plans for the platform include making it possible to place and receive orders for related services such as transport of recyclable resources, which will contribute to new business creation for logistics companies, recycling companies, and other participating businesses.

（３）This platform will also enable participating businesses to rate the companies from which they buy and sell resources. The ratings can serve as indicators for trade and promote transactions with highly rated companies while discouraging trade with companies with low ratings.

Business Achievements & Targets

Based on the results of this trial, Sojitz, Recotech, NELCO, and NTT Com aim to commercialize this platform in the 2022 fiscal year. These four companies will conduct operation and management of this platform and will establish joint ventures within the next several years to further plans and proposals for using this platform in other fields outside the manufacturing industry.

For further information:

https://www.sojitz.com/en/news/2021/03/20210331.php