Lotte Launches Plastic Circular Economy Project... Introduces 50 PET Bottle Collection Robots

Lotte Holdings is carrying out a plastic circular economy project together with its distribution and chemical affiliates.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Lotte Holdings announced on the 5th that it will carry out a plastic virtuous cycle project that systematizes and supports the entire process from collecting waste PET bottles to recycling, in collaboration with distribution and chemical affiliates, to mark Resource Circulation Day on the 6th.

Lotte Holdings will support 900 million KRW in a win-win cooperation fund to the social venture ‘Superbin’ for the introduction of PET bottle collection and recycling infrastructure. Superbin is responsible for developing and distributing AI-based PET bottle collection robots as well as processing collected PET bottles into raw materials. The PET bottle collection robots assist in collecting high-quality PET bottles by sorting transparent PET bottles, removing PET bottle labels, and checking for foreign substances.

The collection of PET bottles is handled by distributors. Lotte Mart and 7-Eleven will sequentially deploy 50 developed PET bottle collection robots in stores to serve as hubs for PET separation and disposal. The collected PET bottles are recycled into eco-friendly products in connection with Lotte Chemical. Lotte Chemical is conducting its own ‘Project Loop’ to produce eco-friendly products using collected waste plastics. In the future, Lotte Chemical plans to increase the annual production of chemically recycled PET, which can use low-quality waste PET as raw material and does not degrade in quality even after repeated recycling, to 340,000 tons by 2030.

Earlier, Lotte Holdings held a board meeting on the 2nd and resolved to establish an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Committee. Lotte plans to complete the establishment of committees in 10 listed affiliates by the end of this month and make the publication of a sustainability management report containing ESG management performance mandatory.