[Special Stock] Samryung Mulsan, Growing Calls for Mandatory Eco-Friendly Packaging... Global Plastic Waste Crisis 'Emergency'

Growing Interest in Eco-Friendly Products from Samryung Mulsan Subsidiary in the Food Industry
Global Company Nestle Also Drawn to Eco-Friendly Technology

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyungsoo] Samryung Mulsan is showing strong performance. As the whole world faces serious social issues due to plastic waste management, expectations that the demand for eco-friendly packaging developed by its subsidiary SR Technopack will surge seem to be influencing the stock price.

At 1:57 PM on the 18th, Samryung Mulsan was trading at 10,700 KRW, up 22.84% from the previous day.

Recently, due to the impact of COVID-19, contactless (untact) consumption has increased, making the "garbage crisis" a reality. As people spend more time at home, the number of cases ordering delivery food has increased, greatly increasing the use of packaging materials. Demand for delivery food has also surged. According to Statistics Korea, the transaction amount for food services (delivery food) in online shopping recorded 8.6574 trillion KRW cumulatively from January to July this year, jumping 73.6% compared to the same period last year.

SR Technopack, a subsidiary of Samryung Mulsan that manufactures milk cartons, succeeded in commercializing its own material 'GB-8' last year. This year, it also succeeded in exporting to global companies.

As the plastic waste disposal problem worsens, more domestic large food companies are relying on SR Technopack's technology. In March this year, global food company Nestl? even adopted packaging using GB-8 for some external labels of cup coffee (RTD).

After applying GB-8 to liquid cups, SR Technopack decomposed it into recycled pellets (small particle form) and conducted Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), verifying that it can be recycled with the same components as plastic. SR Technopack's oxygen barrier coating technology can be applied not only to cup products but also to various food packaging such as ramen bags and snack bags, which can have a long-term waste reduction effect.

In Korea, metropolitan landfill sites are predicted to reach saturation by November 2024, nine months earlier than the scheduled closure date. Since no solutions such as alternative site searches have even begun, calls to increase the use of eco-friendly materials are growing louder.