Shopping Bags made from KANEKA Biodegradable Polymer Green Planet™ Simultaneous rollout in all 73 BLUE SKY stores in 25 airports nationwide

Kaneka Corporation
March 10, 2022

JALUX Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director & CEO: Masashi Shinohara; hereafter JALUX) will roll out shopping bags from KANEKA Biodegradable Polymer Green Planet^TM (Green Planet) developed by Kaneka Corporation (Headquarters:Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Minoru Tanaka; hereafter Kaneka) simultaneously in all 73 BLUE SKY stores in 25 airports nationwide (operated by JALUX) from the end of April2022.

In July 2021, JALUX rolled out the first shopping bags made from Green Planet in Japan in its 4 BLUE SKY stores in Naha Airport*¹. To further accelerate its response to environmental issues, JALUX is expanding the rollout to all 73 of its stores. Kaneka and JALUX, while continuing to strengthen their partnership, will work towards the commercialization and rollout of Green Planet products in airports nationwide and the aviation
field.

Green Planet developed by Kaneka is a biomass polymer that is produced by microorganisms using plant oils as primary raw materials. It is eventually decomposed into CO2 and H2O through the digestive process of microorganisms existing in the environment. With its excellent biodegradability in a wide range of environments, Green Planet has been certified as biodegradable in seawater by “OK Biodegradable MARINE”*². Plastic pollution in the ocean and the ground is a serious international issue. In Japan, the Act on Resource Circulation for Plastics, slated to go into effect in April of this year, will mandate a reduction in single-use plastics. In addition to being biodegradable, it offers the same functions as ordinary plastic, making it an innovative solution to the problems of environmental harm caused by single use plastics. Kaneka estimates Green Planet could replace roughly 25 million tons of traditional single-use plastic products per year worldwide. Kaneka has decided to significantly increase production capacity to 15,000 tons a year to respond to this sudden increase in demand. (Start of operations: January 2024, Production capacity: combined with the existing plant capacity of 5,000 tons/year, the total production capacity 20,000 tons/year)

*1. As of June14th, 2021
Kaneka News Release “KANEKA Biodegradable Polymer Green Planet™” is adopted in shopping bags for JALUX”
https://www.kaneka.co.jp/en/topics/news/2021/ennr2106141.html

JALUX News Release “’BLUE SKY’ shops at Naha Airport introduces Shopping Bags made from “Kaneka Biodegradable Polymer
Green Planet™” for the first time”
https://www.jalux.com/news/2021/blue-sky-green-planet.html

*2. Biodegrades at least 90% in seawater (30℃) within 6 months. The "OK Biodegradable MARINE" certificate was issued to Green Planet™（formerly called PHBH™）in September 2017 by Vincotte, an international certifying body headquartered in Belgium. TÜV AUSTRIA Belgium NV took over the certification work from Vincotte in December 2017.

<About KANEKA Biodegradable Polymer Green Planet™>
https://www.kaneka.co.jp/en/solutions/phbh/index.html