Arab News Japan

ABU DHABI: Japan-based company JEPLAN’s CEO and Co-Founder Masaki Takao and Abu Dhabi-based company Rebound Limited General Manager Maryam Al Mansoori signed a letter of intent for a joint project to establish a recycle PET market in the UAE with the appropriate ecosystem.

The agreement was signed on May 31 at the Make it in the Emirates Forum.

Rebound, which signed the agreement, is a subsidiary company of International Holding Company (IHC), a UAE investment holding company, launched less than a year ago, the first global trading platform for quality-assured recycled plastics, Rebound Plastic Exchange (RPX).

The signing ceremony was held at the Make it in the Emirates Forum organised by the UAE’s Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (‘MoIAT’) in cooperation with the the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development and ADNOC. It was attended by representatives from MoIAT, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, government of Japan (‘METI’) and Universal Materials Incubator Co. Ltd.

The project consists of four steps and will be jointly studied with the aim of agreeing on a demonstration project for the construction of a PET chemical recycling plant in the UAE in preparation for the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, COP28) to be held in the UAE in November this year. Through the joint study, the participation of partner companies in the UAE will be widely sought, with the aim of establishing a supply chain for recycled PET in the UAE. With the signing of this agreement, the joint study will be carried out in stages, and JEPLAN will be involved in quality surveys of used PET bottles collected in the UAE, verification of recycling costs, and verification of the plant’s manufacturing operations.

JEPLAN’s vision is to ‘put everything back into circulation’, and its unique PET chemical recycling technology, BRING Technology™, mainly for PET bottles and polyester fibres, allows used products to be recycled to the same quality as petroleum-derived products, again and again. It achieves repeated resource recycling and contributes to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. The Group operates PET chemical recycling commercial plants using this technology at two sites in Japan.

Both JEPLAN and Rebound participated in this joint verification in the UAE in recognition of their more than 10 years of knowledge and proprietary technology in the recycling business. JEPLAN Group will continue to collaborate with domestic and international partners and unite the efforts of the entire group to realize its vision to “put everything back into circulation.”

The letter of intent is one of many agreements signed during the Make it in the Emirates Forum in line with MoIAT’s efforts to support the UAE’s economic growth and diversification, as well as its net zero by 2050 strategic initiative.