Recycling: Mitsui Chemicals launches chemical recycling for ophthalmic lens materials; India’s Srichakra triples bottle-grade rPET production capacity with new lines

Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals has developed a new technology that chemically recycles shavings and waste lenses generated from the production and processing of MR ophthalmic lens materials so that they may be repurposed into MR ophthalmic lens materials. The company has also launched efforts toward the practical implementation of this technology.

Ophthalmic lenses go through various processes on their way to becoming final products, including lens moulding by the lens manufacturer, prescription processing, surfacing, edging, and fitting into frames at retail stores. Currently most of the lens swarf and waste lenses generated through out these processes are simply discarded.

Now, Mitsui Chemicals aims to recover the lens swarf and waste lenses to subject them to chemical recycling utilising the company’s new technology. This new technology allows the materials to then be reused for MR ophthalmic lens materials while maintaining the highest quality standards.

This requires high levels of transparency, strength and more. The firm aims to achieve a circular economy by building a business model that spans the entire ophthalmic lens value chain.

As a manufacturer of ophthalmic lens materials, Mitsui Chemicals says its products offer high weather resistance, a variety of refractive indices and more, including the MR series of high-refractive-index lens materials.

The company is also working to make an environmental impact with its range of eco-friendly products, including Do Green, a plant-derived ophthalmic lens material.

In other news, Indian PET recycler Srichakra Polyplast has commissioned two new Austrian-made Starlinger plastic recycling lines at its facility in Hyderabad city, tripling its recycled PET (rPET) production capacity to 42,000 tonnes/year.

The firm commissioned the two new bottle-to-bottle recycling lines in the first half of 2024. Srichakra has been recycling post-consumer PET bottles and polyolefin packaging material using two Starlinger recycling machinery since 2021.

Srichakra became the first Indian rPET recycler to obtain the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) certification in 2022, allowing ot to export products to the European market.

The two new recoSTAR PET 165 HC iV+ PET bottle-to-bottle recycling lines have been installed at Srichakra’s recycling facility at the outskirts of Hyderabad, Telangana state, where the existing Starlinger lines – one with odour reduction technology for processing post-consumer polyolefins, the other one a PET bottle-to-bottle recycling line – are already in operation.

Domestic demand for rPET has been rising because the Indian government implemented the extended producer responsibility scheme, Srichakra's Managing Director P V Ravindra said. Under the current framework, brand owners and producers are required to include a minimum of 30% rPET in beverage bottles.

He added, “As an end-to-end recycling and plastic waste management company, we are committed to make meaningful contributions for more sustainability in the plastic packaging industry. We partner with corporations to help them meet ERP goals and ensure that sufficient recycled materials are available on the market.”

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