New Company Makes Fuel from Refuse

  Kawasaki founded a new Japanese joint venture, Eco Mining, Ltd., with Sekishouten Co., Ltd. in April. Located at Kawasaki's Yachiyo Works in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, the company will make and sell RPF, or refuse paper and plastic fuel, when it starts up in April 2003.
  With the implementation of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law in April 2000 and industry enhancement of environmental management, which has led to reductions in CO2 emissions and energy costs, RPF has drawn interest as an effective way of recycling wastepaper and plastic. Eco Mining will collect the waste materials and manufacture RPF at a new plant capable of producing up to 4,500 tons of the fuel each month. It expects to sell it to users like paper, steel and lime manufacturers.
  Eco Mining effectively merges Kawasaki's technological expertise in developing and building RPF facilities with Sekishouten's wealth of knowledge in recycled fuels production and developing RPF markets. The new venture demonstrates Kawasaki's ongoing commitment to the environment and to resource reuse/recovery systems. By promoting RPF as an alternative to fossil fuels, it is also contributing to a decrease in landfills and the reduction of CO2 emissions responsible for global warming.