Sony is on track to become the first major Japanese company which is eliminating plastic from packaging to meet its sustainability goals.

The company will develop packaging materials in-house from sources like bamboo and sugarcane fiber and also obtain paper boxes from external sources.

It will begin with the packaging of smaller products weighing 1 kilogram or less. This includes smartphones, cameras, and audio accessories in fiscal 2023, an estimated 40% of the products the company shipped in fiscal 2021.

“[It] is a very novel initiative. I have not heard of any similar initiatives from other domestic manufacturers,” said Hiroyoshi Niwa, Deloitte.

It also plans to eliminate plastic from packaging of larger products like television, but such packaging will continue to rely on polystyrene foam for now.

With this change, the company is on track to achieving its long-term environmental plan “Road to Zero” to get to zero environmental footprint by 2050 in its production activities.

One of the targets was to reduce the amount of plastic and energy used by products.

Amongst other measures, Sony is also planning to reduce the amount of virgin oil-based plastics per product by 10% compared to the amount used in fiscal 2018 and introduce recycled plastics.

Considering the threat plastic poses to the environment, the Japanese government imposed a law in April that encourages companies to rely less on single-use plastics.

Convenience store chain FamilyMart and McDonald’s in Japan have agreed to comply by not providing plastic utensils anymore.