SK Chemicals Expands PET Bottle Recycling Ecosystem to Honam Region

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] SK Chemicals is expanding its PET bottle recycling ecosystem from Gyeonggi Province to Gwangju Metropolitan City.

On the 25th, SK Chemicals announced that it signed a business agreement for the "Transparent PET Bottle Resource Circulation Project" with Gwangsan-gu of Gwangju Metropolitan City, Doosan E&T, Hyundai Environment, and Sinheung Resources to separately collect and recycle transparent PET bottles.

This agreement is the first case in Gwangju and Jeonnam where SK Chemicals, local governments, small and medium-sized enterprises, and regional companies have joined forces to establish a virtuous cycle system for transparent PET bottles. According to the agreement, Sinheung Resources and Hyundai Environment will collect and compress transparent PET bottles discharged in Gwangsan-gu and provide them to Doosan E&T, which will process them into high-quality recycled raw materials and supply them to SK Chemicals. SK Chemicals uses these raw materials for eco-friendly textile yarns and recycled cosmetic containers.

Through this cooperation, SK Chemicals expects to secure about 1,000 tons of waste PET bottles annually. SK Chemicals plans to process high-quality PET bottles into recycled PET (r-PET) and use low-quality PET bottles as chemical recycling (depolymerization) raw materials by classifying the quality of the secured waste PET bottles. In October, SK Chemicals started the world's first commercial production of chemically recycled copolyester and aims to internalize chemical recycling raw material production technology.

Chemical recycling decomposes polymer materials such as plastics through chemical reactions and recycles them into their original raw material form through separation and purification processes, making it possible to use waste plastics as raw materials regardless of their quality.

An SK Chemicals official stated, "Through this cooperation, we plan to minimize PET bottles classified as low quality during the sorting process that are incinerated or landfilled, increase the recycling rate, and expand the value of resource circulation nationwide together with Gwangsan-gu."