Kaneka Adopted for JICA’s Collaboration Program with the Private Sector for Disseminating Japanese Technology

Kaneka Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Mamoru Kadokura) was adopted for its project to promote widespread use of shopping bags made of its biodegradable polymer (Product name: KANEKA Biodegradable Polymer PHBH (PHBH)) in the Republic of Kenya (Kenya) under Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s Collaboration Program with the Private Sector for Disseminating Japanese Technology (Call for proposal on May 14, 2018).

In Kenya, approximately a hundred million single-use plastic shopping bags were used annually and the number kept increasing, causing social problems such as insufficient capabilities of waste disposal plants and illegal disposal of wastes. As a countermeasure, Kenya enacted “Plastic Bag Ban Law” in August 2017, banning plastic shopping bags in an effort to reduce plastic waste.

Our PHBH is the 100% plant-based bio-polymer with excellent biodegradability and has been increasingly used for fruit and vegetable bags and compostable*1 bags in the European regions. Kaneka is to promote widespread use of biodegradable polymer shopping bags made of PHBH in Kenya as well.

In particular, Kaneka will support National Environmental Management Authority and Kenya Bureau of Standard for introduction of the certification and labelling system for biodegradability, while conducting to local processing manufacturers technical trainings to produce biodegradable polymer shopping bags. We will also promote understanding and widespread use of biodegradable polymer shopping bags through implementing local tests of biodegradability with the hope of future business development in Kenya.

1. a process in which organic matters such as garden and kitchen wastes are degraded by microorganisms to produce an organic fertilizer, or the organic fertilizer itself.

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