Lion Corporation and artience Group Achieve Horizontal Recycling for Refill Packs
Lion Corporation, in collaboration with Toyo Ink Co., Ltd. (artience group), has achieved horizontal recycling using manufacturing offcuts of refill packs through a jointly developed 'peeling recycling technology.' The recycled packs will be adopted in the 'Acron Floral Bouquet Scent Refill Large' and released in limited quantities starting late May.
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- 📰 Published: May 19, 2026 at 20:00
- 🔍 Collected: May 19, 2026 at 11:31
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Lion Corporation (Representative Director, President and Executive Officer: Masayuki Takemori) announced the adoption of recycled refill packs, made from manufacturing offcuts, for its 'Acron Floral Bouquet Scent Refill Large' product. This initiative, aimed at realizing an advanced plastic resource-circulating society, will be launched in limited quantities sequentially from late May.
Historically, refill packs have been difficult to recycle due to their composite material structure. To address this, Lion and artience group's Toyo Ink Co., Ltd. (President and Representative Director: Hideki Yasuda) developed a 'peeling recycling technology' to separate different types of film materials. This technology was first commercialized in November 2024 with the 'Look Plus Bathtub Cleansing Refill Large Size.' Now, the companies have proven that manufacturing offcuts from these packs can be reused as high-quality recycled material for 'Acron' refill packs. Moving forward, Lion will collaborate with the artience group to promote the continuous reuse of recycled refill packs and strengthen plastic recycling partnerships across different sectors, including the food industry.
■ Lion's Environmental Initiatives
The Lion Group considers 'promoting initiatives for a sustainable global environment' a key material issue. Under its long-term environmental goal, 'LION Eco Challenge 2050,' the company aims to reduce its use of petrochemical-derived plastics in products and packaging to 70% or less by 2030, while also recovering and reusing used plastics.
In Japan, 9.11 million tons of waste plastic are generated annually, with packaging and containers (including flexible film packaging like refill packs) accounting for about 40%. However, only 20% of waste plastic is currently material-recycled (reused as raw material), while the majority is processed through thermal recycling (energy recovery via incineration). While Lion's primary refill packaging format is lightweight and resource-efficient, its multi-layered plastic film construction has made recycling difficult, leading to most packs being discarded as waste. To solve this, Lion and the artience group jointly developed the 'peeling recycling technology' to separate and recover single materials. As a step toward future market-based collection and recycling, they first implemented the horizontal recycling of unused manufacturing film offcuts into high-quality refill packs.
■ About the 'Peeling Recycling Technology'
Flexible film packaging utilizes a multi-layered structure with printing inks and adhesives between films to ensure impact resistance, content protection, and visibility. However, this complex structure has hindered high-quality recycling.
Together with the artience group, Lion developed a technology to peel apart multi-material films and separate them into single materials using differences in specific gravity, commercializing an easy-to-recycle refill pack in November 2024.
In this practical application, manufacturing offcuts are crushed and stirred in an alkaline solution to separate the polyethylene film from the surface layer. It is then recovered as high-purity polyethylene through specific gravity sorting.
Historically, refill packs have been difficult to recycle due to their composite material structure. To address this, Lion and artience group's Toyo Ink Co., Ltd. (President and Representative Director: Hideki Yasuda) developed a 'peeling recycling technology' to separate different types of film materials. This technology was first commercialized in November 2024 with the 'Look Plus Bathtub Cleansing Refill Large Size.' Now, the companies have proven that manufacturing offcuts from these packs can be reused as high-quality recycled material for 'Acron' refill packs. Moving forward, Lion will collaborate with the artience group to promote the continuous reuse of recycled refill packs and strengthen plastic recycling partnerships across different sectors, including the food industry.
■ Lion's Environmental Initiatives
The Lion Group considers 'promoting initiatives for a sustainable global environment' a key material issue. Under its long-term environmental goal, 'LION Eco Challenge 2050,' the company aims to reduce its use of petrochemical-derived plastics in products and packaging to 70% or less by 2030, while also recovering and reusing used plastics.
In Japan, 9.11 million tons of waste plastic are generated annually, with packaging and containers (including flexible film packaging like refill packs) accounting for about 40%. However, only 20% of waste plastic is currently material-recycled (reused as raw material), while the majority is processed through thermal recycling (energy recovery via incineration). While Lion's primary refill packaging format is lightweight and resource-efficient, its multi-layered plastic film construction has made recycling difficult, leading to most packs being discarded as waste. To solve this, Lion and the artience group jointly developed the 'peeling recycling technology' to separate and recover single materials. As a step toward future market-based collection and recycling, they first implemented the horizontal recycling of unused manufacturing film offcuts into high-quality refill packs.
■ About the 'Peeling Recycling Technology'
Flexible film packaging utilizes a multi-layered structure with printing inks and adhesives between films to ensure impact resistance, content protection, and visibility. However, this complex structure has hindered high-quality recycling.
Together with the artience group, Lion developed a technology to peel apart multi-material films and separate them into single materials using differences in specific gravity, commercializing an easy-to-recycle refill pack in November 2024.
In this practical application, manufacturing offcuts are crushed and stirred in an alkaline solution to separate the polyethylene film from the surface layer. It is then recovered as high-purity polyethylene through specific gravity sorting.
FAQ
Which product uses Lion's new recycling technology?
It is adopted in the 'Acron Floral Bouquet Scent Refill Large' starting late May in limited quantities.
Why were traditional refill packs hard to recycle?
They were made of multi-layered plastic films to improve durability, making it difficult to separate them into single materials.
How does the peeling recycling technology work?
It separates the films by stirring them in an alkaline solution and uses specific gravity differences to recover high-purity single materials.