Sumitomo Seika announced on June 15, 2026 that a pilot plant for recycling superabsorbent polymer recovered from used diapers had begun operating at its Himeji factory in Japan.
The process breaks selected chemical crosslinks, purifies the resulting polymer and rebuilds the absorbent structure. The company plans to evaluate material quality, safety and production conditions. Waseda University is expected to assess environmental impacts using pilot data.
The facility is an industrial-development step, rather than commercial production. Sumitomo Seika targets social implementation in fiscal 2030; the announcement does not establish recycling performance for a particular adult-diaper brand.