Contributing to the Recycling of Resources

The Ajinomoto Group created the "Aji na Eco" mark¹ to effectively display its eco-friendly products and services among consumers. The mark appeared on product packaging from the autumn of 2010, and has been extended to other items the group has developed to be more ecological, such as refill containers and packaging that uses recycle paper or does not include food trays inside.

The mark is also displayed on new shipping boxes for the Pure Select series of mayonnaise products introduced in fiscal 2011. Featuring a design that eliminates internal compartments, the new boxes will annually reduce both the amount of cardboard used and the equivalent amount of CO₂ emissions by approximately 30% compared to previous shipping boxes. Additionally, the "Aji na Eco" mark is printed on the Ajinomoto Group's new gift boxes made of recyclable cardboard and free of coating agents.

Whether products, services, packaging or shipping boxes, the mark informs customers and users of their environmentally conscious design and materials. The Ajinomoto Group plans to put forward more measures to develop environmentally friendly product packaging and labeling in the future.

1. The "Aji na Eco" mark is used to clearly label the group's products and services that meet standards for environmentally friendliness. It is a registered trademark of Ajinomoto Co., Inc.

The number of food trays included inside packages of frozen food products sold by Ajinomoto Frozen Foods Co., Inc. (FFA) is approximately 185 million per year, and possibly more than 1.5 billion¹ trays are used by the Japanese frozen food industry as a whole. To reduce this number, FFA began selling its large packages of Wakadori Karaage fried chicken without trays from 1997, in contrast to the ongoing standard practice of including them inside frozen fried chicken packages.

Customers have demonstrated their appreciation by making this product the top seller among frozen fried chicken products for 10 consecutive years. FFA reduced the number of trays it would have used by about 37 million per year after selling the product without trays. From autumn 2010, the product was labeled with the "Aji na Eco" mark to more effectively communicate this initiative to customers.

1. The estimated numbers of trays used applies to retail products sold in fiscal 2010.

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  BDN and coagulating sedimentation equipment installed at Ajinomoto Vietnam Co., Ltd.

Large quantities of water are required in the fermentation process for producing amino acids, the core component of the group's business. Accordingly, the group generally selects sites for its amino acid fermentation plants near abundant water sources.

Nevertheless, the Ajinomoto Group considers the conservation of water to be a crucial issue in its future vision. Therefore, as priority tasks, efforts are being made to reduce water usage as much as possible and to purify the water before its discharge into the natural environment.

The Ajinomoto Group discharged approximately 200 million tonnes of water in fiscal 2002, but reduced this amount to less than 100 million tonnes by fiscal 2010. In the same period, the volume of discharged water per tonne of products produced was reduced by 77%, from 160 tonnes to 38 tonnes, through the reuse of cooling water and other initiatives.

The group has also set targets to reduce the levels of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and nitrogen in discharged water; 20 out of 39 designated production plants achieved target levels in fiscal 2010. Plants that fell short of reaching them will continue to pursue targets laid out in the new Ajinomoto Group Zero Emissions Plan commencing in fiscal 2011.

To further reduce BOD and nitrogen levels, the group recognizes that it will be necessary to implement measures that target water sources and promote bio-cycles, as well as to introduce sophisticated wastewater treatment facilities such as biological denitrification (BDN) equipment. Accordingly, the Ajinomoto Group is proceeding to install advanced wastewater treatment equipment at its main production plants around the world. For example, Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is upgrading wastewater treatment facilities at its Kawasaki Plant, a main production plant in Japan, with the plan to implement the latest wastewater treatment technologies in 2012.