The Pigeon Group promotes the conservation of natural resources and recycling, strives to reduce resource usage and waste production across the entire Group and lessen its burden on the environment, and contributes to the realization of a sustainable circular economy in order to “leave a rich Earth for the future of babies born tomorrow.”
Nursing Bottle Recycling
Among the many baby products available, nursing bottles are often used from the earliest days after a child’s birth, and family members can feel attached to them even after they are no longer needed. We are pursuing companywide resources recycling products to allow us to accept cherished nursing bottles that have served their purpose from our customers and reuse these resources by remaking them into new forms. We are also continually working to reduce plastic waste.
“Go Green with Pigeon” Project in Singapore
Pigeon Singapore Pte Ltd. began recycling used nursing bottles in 2019, and soon launched a full project with the goal of recovering 50,000 bottles by 2030. By the end of 2021, over the three years since the project began, 35,702 used nursing bottles had been recovered and reused as new products.
Pigeon Singapore “Go Green with Pigeon” project website
Our Sustainable Actions "Nursing Bottles Recycling Campaign (Singapore)"
Recycling Initiatives in China
Pigeon (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has launched a project to collect used nursing bottles from customers and reuse them. Used nursing bottles are remade into food trays, for use by older children, that are given to customers as gifts.
Recycling Initiatives in Japan
Pigeon Corporation, in cooperation with a major retailer of baby products, has started a pilot project to collect and recycle Pigeon nursing bottles that are no longer used at home. Collection boxes has been placed at 10 baby product stores. From August 25, 2022 to February 28, 2023, we collected 926 plastic baby bottles, 956 glass baby bottles, 2,358 nipples, and other parts for a total of 7,437 pieces. The collected nursing bottles will be sorted by material and recycled into raw materials, which will then be used to make new products. In this pilot project, some of the collected nursing bottles will also be used to verify a resource recycling scheme aimed at reusing them as raw materials for new nursing bottles from March 2023.
Paper Package Upcycling
In 2022, Pigeon Home Products Corporation (PHP) installed collection boxes at its own plant and a public facility in Fuji City, where consumers can deposit used paper packages from selected Pigeon toiletries, including Pure baby laundry detergent and baby soap. These packages will then be upcycled into notepads, picture books, and other items. (“Upcycling” is when an old product is reborn as a new and different product with new added value.)
Furthermore, PHP will offer school visits to teach about recycling paper packages, hold events where participants can actually experience upcycling paper packages, and explain the systems through which paper resources can be used in a circular fashion, promoting awareness of recycling among consumers.
Our Sustainable Actions "Launching a Pilot Program to Upcycle Paper Packages (Japan - Pigeon Home Products)"
Reducing Industrial Waste and Promoting Recycling
The Pigeon Group is working to reduce unrecycled industrial waste created by business activities. In our seventh Medium-Term Management Plan (2020-2022), we set the goal of reducing unrecycled industrial waste per sales unit by 1% annually. Our manufacturing subsidiaries have strived to reduce raw material waste by improving productivity and yield and are now working to minimize wasted resources during the manufacturing phase through repeated revisions and improvements of product package design. We have also reviewed our disposal partners and switched our disposal contracts to industrial waste disposal companies that are able to recycle more of the industrial waste that was not previously recycled.
Note: Data collection scope: Pigeon Corporation and consolidated subsidiaries (national and international)
1. Due to a change of closing month, sales and industrial waste volume at Japanese centers for the fiscal year ending December 2019 are the actual figures for the 11 months from February to December in 2019. From the fiscal year ending in December 2021, new revenue recognition standards were applied, so the sales figures for the fiscal years ending January 2019, December 2019, and December 2020 were provisionally calculated based on the new revenue recognition standards, and the basic unit for industrial waste recalculated accordingly.
2. Recycling includes reuse and thermal recycling.
Water Resource Conservation
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), population growth, rapid urbanization, and economic growth are projected to increase water demand by 55% by 2050, resulting in serious water shortages for 3.9 billion people, more than 40% of the world population. In addition, there are already countries and regions where water supply and demand are tight and water is in short supply.
We recognize these issues related to water resources and have been continuously working to improve usage efficiency and reduce water consumption by defining the difference between water withdrawn and discharge as water consumption, continuously reviewing and improving manufacturing processes, purifying and reusing water used in manufacturing, and implementing other initiatives at our factories.
Reduction of Water Consumption (Water Recyling)
Initiative in Japan
Pigeon Manufacturing Ibaraki Corporation has improved the process of cleaning chemical tanks after production, which previously required new water to be added to each tank for cleaning after production. In order to reduce water consumption, the process was reviewed and started to reuse the cleaning water to clean chemical tanks since May 2022. Previously, dissolution tanks, blending tanks, and stock tanks were cleaned separately, and the cleaning water used for each tank was treated as wastewater and condensed using boiler heat instead of being reused. After the improvement, they now reuse the cleaning water used to clean dissolution tanks to clean mixing tanks as well as stock tanks. This initiative is expected to reduce water consumption by 38.5 m³ per year. The reduction in water consumption will also reduce the amount of fuel used for wastewater concentration treatment by approximately 2100 liters per year, which translates into a reduction which is equivalent to approximately 6 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
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Chemical tanks in Pigeon Manufacturing Ibaraki
Initiative in Thailand
Pigeon Industries (Thailand) Co., Ltd. produces pure water by treating withdrawn water with filtration equipment and a reverse osmosis water purifier (RO membrane) and uses the pure water in its manufacturing processes. Impurity-concentrated water is discharged from the reverse osmosis system as wastewater, which is reused as cleaning water for the filters in the sand filtration tanks and activated carbon filtration tanks. This measure has led to an annual reduction of 900m³ in the amount of withdrawn water used to clean the filtration tanks.
Water risk assessment of our manufacturing sites
The "maximum available water resources per capita" is often used as an indicator to assess water stress (the degree of pressure on water supply and demand). According to this indicator, the minimum amount of water resources required for daily life, agriculture, industry, energy, and the environment is defined as1,700 m³ per capita per year, and if it falls below this level, the country is considered to be "under water stress. We use "Aquastat" developed by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) as a tool to assess water risks in specific countries on a global level where our manufacturing sites are located, and identified India, where Pigeon India Pvt. Ltd. is located, as a country with water stress.
|
Country of origin of |
Aquastat |
Water Stress/Risk Assessment |
| Japan | 3,380 | ー |
| China | 1,946 | Fragile |
| India | 1,413 | Under water stress |
| Thailand | 6,317 | ー |
| Indonesia | 7,542 | ー |
| Turkey | 2,570 | ー |
Based on published data from FAO's (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Aquastat
Initiatives at our factory in India
Our factory operating in India, PIGEON INDIA PVT.LTD., primarily manufactures molded products such as nursing bottles and silicone nipples and does not manufacture products that depend on water resources such as skin care products and detergents. Its water consumption is less than 1% of the water intake at all of our production sites. However, we are aware of the water resource issues in the region where the factory is located and are working on water conservation activities. The annual water intake is about 1,200m³, all of which is sourced from groundwater, and the water is purified and used within the plant. The water used is reused for watering plants and lawns on its premises. At this point, we have not identified any water risks that could affect our business activities or the environment, but we will continue to proactively obtain environmental information, including environmental laws and regulations, and apply it to water conservation activities at the plant to improve water use efficiency and strengthen water conservation management.
