In response to such trends as the sharp increase in the world’s population and its continued urbanization along with the rapid economic growth of emerging and developing nations, the depletion of natural resources essential for living has become an issue. Seven & i Group is working toward achieving a circular economy that makes effective use of resources by working with customers and business partners to reduce waste, collect recyclable resources at stores, promote recycling, and reuse materials.

With regard to the reduction of plastic shopping bags that has been attracting increased attention lately, Seven & i Group’s “GREEN CHALLENGE 2050” environmental declaration sets the goal of replacing 50% of containers and packaging used in our original products by 2030, and 100% by 2050, with environmental-friendly materials. In addition, with regard to the reduction of plastic bags, we aim to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags to zero by 2030, and adopt sustainable, natural materials such as paper for shopping bags.

Seven & i Group is promoting an important initiative to recover and recycle empty containers and other materials from its products. Every Group company cooperates with customers and local governments to collect recycling resources such as bottles, cans, polystyrene, paper cartons, and PET bottles at stores in accordance with local waste disposal sorting rules. Recently, some stores of the Group have also been cooperating with local governments to collect small electrical appliances, which have been drawing attention as “urban mines.”

Ito-Yokado Hikifune store has been developing new initiatives to promote a circular economy, such as providing a place for demonstration of recycling experiments jointly conducted by Kao and Lion since October 2020. Also, in September 2023, Ito-Yokado Yokohama Bessho store launched a demonstration project in collaboration with R Plus Japan Ltd.* to collect food containers with the aim of using them in chemical recycling. 

Ito-Yokado and York-Benimaru have installed PET bottle collection machines at stores since 2012. Since PET bottles inserted into the machines undergo an automatic process of foreign-matter removal and volume-reduction (by either compression or crushing), large volumes of bottles for recycling can be sent to recycling plants at a time, which allows reductions in the frequency of deliveries from stores to be achieved. Moreover, utilizing Seven & i Group logistics routes facilitates more efficient transportation and reductions in CO2 emissions volumes accompanying deliveries.

The collected PET bottles are made into new PET bottles and other products for the domestic market. This “closed-loop recycling” system of recycling PET bottles into new PET bottles is the first attempt by a major retail chain in Japan to be implemented on such a large scale.

Seven-Eleven Japan conducted trials of PET bottle collection machines at five stores in Koto-ku, Tokyo starting in December 2015. Later, the program was expanded in stages to stores in Tokyo and Saitama Prefectures starting in December 2017. In addition, since June 2019, Seven-Eleven Japan has been partnering with Higashiyamato City, the Higashiyamato City Cleaning Business Cooperative, and the Nippon Foundation to gradually install PET bottle collection machines to promote bottle-to-bottle recycling at all 7-Eleven stores in Higashiyamato City. Moreover, in September 2019, the installation of PET bottle collection machines began at stores in Okinawa Prefecture, and in January 2020, installation began in Yokohama City, making it the first among ordinance-designated cities. As of the end of February 2024, 3,673 PET bottle collection machines have been installed in 34 prefectures.

We also sell the “bottle-to-bottle” private products made from recycled plastic bottles collected at stores. Through these products, we are working on promoting understanding and awareness of the circular recycling system.

From June 2019, Seven & i Group began selling “Seven Premium Hajime Ryokucha Ichi-nichi Ippon” in recycled bottles made by using 100% of the PET bottles collected by reverse vending machines at stores. It is the first initiative of its kind in the world that recycles PET bottles collected from specific distribution groups as raw materials and sells them as a product again in the same distribution group.*

Seven & i Group is making efforts to expand the use of recycled PET materials while promoting the collection of PET bottles. In February 2020, “Seven Premium Lifestyle Body Cooler,” an underwear that utilizes PET bottles collected by PET bottle reverse vending machines installed at the Group stores and uses recycled yarn made from the PET bottles, went on sale at Ito-Yokado and York-Benimaru stores nationwide.

As of the end of February 2024, Ito-Yokado carries approximately 250 clothing items that use these recycled materials, accounting for about 14% of the sales mix for Ito-Yokado’s underwear category. We plan to continue developing products that use recycled PET bottle materials moving forward

PET Bottle Recycling Scheme

Seven & i Group has promoted the reduced use of disposable plastic bags by asking customers whether they need a bag at the register, displaying posters and POP signs, and holding events to encourage customers to bring their own shopping bags when shopping at stores. In July 2020, we commenced usage fees for plastic shopping bags, and as of the end of February 2023, the rate of decline in use of plastic shopping bags for the entire Group was just under 80%.

Seven-Eleven Japan has recommended that 21,000 stores nationwide use plastic shopping bags containing 30% plant-derived biomass polyethylene to further reduce usage fees for petroleum-derived plastics. As plastic shopping bags started to cost money, the turn-down rate at Seven-Eleven Japan, which was about 30% before the charge was applied, has grown to be about 70% (as of the end of February 2024). The "equivalent headquarters revenue" from the sale of plastic bags in FY2023 amounted to approximately 880 million yen. This revenue is being utilized in part to cover the costs of installing PET bottle reverse vending machines and other related expenses.

In Japan, approximately 100,000 tons of discarded food oil from households is generated annually, most of which is disposed of as combustible waste without being reused. In response to this situation, from February 2023, Ito-Yokado commenced an initiative to collect used or unused discarded oils generated in households and recycle these into soap, ink solvents, and other resources. As of September 1, 2024, 30 stores have implemented this initiative. Additionally, collecting these oils in dedicated returnable bottles distributed to customers allows these bottles to be cleaned and reused repeatedly, thereby constituting a further initiative to mitigate the generation of waste.

Ito-Yokado is working to curtail the generation of waste and to promote reuse and recycling with a view to reducing waste disposal. For example, in product deliveries, Ito-Yokado utilizes reusable containers and hangers for delivery of apparel as a way of cutting down on the use of packaging and cardboard. At stores, Ito-Yokado promotes understanding of recycling, and store employees are encouraged to rigorously sort waste for recycling purposes.

Seven-Eleven Japan collects in-store equipment, such as refrigerated cases, from closed stores and, after cleaning, refurbishing, and inspecting them, promotes their reuse in new stores.