News from Japan

Recently, reduction of environmental burdens has been a major public concern, and studies have been carried out in many industrial fields, including the wire and cable industry. Efficient recycling has been achieved for metallic materials, through the development of methods for separating metals from other materials. In the case of wires and cables insulated by thermoplastic resins such as polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride, the resins are usually broken into small pieces, which are then recycled. However, efficient recycling of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE), a typical insulating material in power cables, has yet to be achieved, because the crosslinked structure of XLPE renders it difficult to reform. It can be re-used as fuel, but in most cases it is discarded. Clearly, an efficient recycling process should be developed. To this end, J-Power Systems Corporation has carried out research on XLPE waste recycling, investigating two methods of plasticization.