Nitori Co., Ltd. announced on October 5, 2026 that it will open a “Recycling Center (tentative name)” in Honjo City, Saitama Prefecture, where its own group companies will handle the dismantling, sorting and material recovery of furniture and interior products collected from customers. Operations are scheduled to begin in the first half of fiscal 2028, with the company aiming to make the facility one of Japan’s largest core hubs for resource circulation.
The center will accept used furniture and interior items collected through logistics bases and stores across the greater Kanto region, transport them using the company’s own logistics network, and then dismantle and sort them on-site, with a target of recovering more than 10,000 tons of materials annually. By sorting materials as finely as possible by type, the facility aims to advance resource circulation for furniture and interior products, a category that has not historically been well recycled. The site will consist of two material-recovery buildings and one combined office and research facility; the research facility will accumulate know-how on material recovery to feed into environmentally conscious product development. Operations will be handled by Nitori Facility, and collection and transport by Home Cargo, with the entire operation run in-house by the Nitori Group.
Furniture and interior items are heavy and structurally complex, making them difficult to dismantle and sort. Citing statistics from the Ministry of the Environment, Nitori notes that the recycling rate for such products is under 20%, lower than for other categories of goods. The company says it has also received many comments from customers who, when parting with furniture they have used for a long time, feel it is “a waste to throw away something that still works.”
Since its founding, Nitori has built an integrated business model spanning “manufacturing, distribution, IT and retail.” Aiming to be a company that takes responsibility for a product’s entire life cycle rather than ending its involvement at the point of sale, Nitori has positioned “circulation” as the next piece of this model, pursuing what it calls a “manufacturing, distribution, IT and ‘circular’ retail business.” The new center will serve as the core of this effort. It is also expected to make a significant contribution to the circular business initiatives set out in the group’s environmental vision, “NITORI Group Green Vision 2050,” which aims for 100% of product development to be environmentally conscious by 2050.
As an example of product development that factors in material recovery from the “manufacturing” stage onward, Nitori has developed and sells an “Easy-to-Sort Mattress.” Mattresses are designated as difficult-to-process waste items under national regulations, and are among the hardest furniture products to recycle. This product can be dismantled and sorted by customers themselves once it has reached the end of its useful life, a task that two adults can reportedly complete in about 10 minutes. Nitori says it will apply the know-how accumulated at the new center to product development, expanding its range of environmentally conscious products.
【Press release】[Nitori] “Recycling Center (tentative name),” a new starting point for resource circulation, to begin operations in fiscal 2028.
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