LG Chem to Produce Pyrolysis Oil from Waste Vinyl in Ansan City

Ansan City Collects Waste Vinyl
Supplied as Raw Material to LG Chem Pyrolysis Oil Plant

Imingeun, Mayor of Ansan (right), and Ewhayoung, Head of LG Chem Sustainability Division, are taking a commemorative photo. Photo by LG Chem

LG Chem recycles waste vinyl generated in Ansan City into plastic raw materials.

On the 2nd, LG Chem announced on the 3rd that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ansan City at Ansan City Hall in Gyeonggi Province to promote waste vinyl recycling and establish a circular economy society.

The signing ceremony was attended by Lee Min-geun, Mayor of Ansan, Lee Hwa-young, Executive Vice President and Head of LG Chem's Sustainability Division, and other officials.

LG Chem and Ansan City agreed on the necessity of building a system for the virtuous cycle of plastic resources and decided to jointly promote a project to transform waste vinyl generated in Ansan City into clean resources.

Waste vinyl accounts for about 15,000 tons annually among household waste in Ansan City, and the amount generated is increasing every year. Collected waste vinyl has been processed at a cost by solid recovered fuel (SRF) production companies.

Through this agreement, Ansan City will provide some of the waste vinyl generated in the city to LG Chem, and LG Chem will be able to receive a stable supply of raw materials at its pyrolysis oil plant scheduled to operate this year in Seokmun National Industrial Complex, Dangjin City, Chungnam Province.

The pyrolysis oil plant extracts plastic raw materials from waste vinyl through chemical recycling and plans to produce various eco-friendly products using the waste vinyl received from Ansan City.

Lee Min-geun, Mayor of Ansan City, said, "It is meaningful to cooperate in a project that not only reduces the budget by providing some of the hard-to-recycle waste vinyl to LG Chem's pyrolysis oil plant but also transforms waste vinyl that was incinerated into plastic." He added, "I wish for the stable operation of the plant and hope that the public and private sectors will continue to cooperate to promote recycling and establish a circular economy society."

Lee Hwa-young, Executive Vice President of LG Chem, said, "We hope this cooperation will become a model case of public-private collaboration where local governments and companies join forces to move toward a sustainable future." He added, "LG Chem will accelerate resource circulation projects for a sustainable future."

Meanwhile, LG Chem is actively promoting research and development and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) projects related to resource circulation, such as biodegradable plastics, eco-friendly bio-oil (HVO), and CO2 plastics, and is accelerating investments in the recycling sector.