The Kinki Nippon Railway Co. will send its discarded commuter passes to the Teijin group so they can be melted down to make polyester clothes, the two firms said Wednesday.
Used railway passes and coupon cards, which to date have been burned, will be refined at a Teijin recycling facility to provide the raw material for polyester clothing, marking a first in the railway industry, they said.
The roughly 2 million Kinki Nippon Railway cards used each year would provide enough material to make about 3,000 pieces of polyester clothing, they said.
The companies also plan to recycle polyester into commuter passes in the future.