LGD "Reduced 520 Tons of Carbon with Eco-Friendly Packaging... Equivalent to Planting Over 50,000 Pine Trees"

Jointly Developed with Hanwha Solutions... Sequential Application Starting January Next Year

LG Display announced on the 23rd that it has developed an eco-friendly cushioning packaging material for electronic components using recycled plastic (PCR) raw materials through joint research and development (R&D) with Hanwha Solutions. It is expected to reduce carbon emissions by about 520 tons, which is approximately 40% of the previous amount. This is equivalent to planting 57,000 30-year-old pine trees.

An LG Display employee is introducing eco-friendly cushioning packaging material made from recycled plastic raw materials. Photo by LG Display

Recycled plastic is a raw material recycled by sorting plastics collected after use. Utilizing this can reduce the production of new plastics and waste. It increases resource circulation rates and reduces carbon emissions. The packaging material developed this time was made using recycled plastic that obtained the international recycling standard certification 'GRS' from the global eco-certification organization 'Control Union.'

LG Display explained that it was responsible for design optimization and performance verification, while Hanwha Solutions handled raw material refining and processing based on proprietary technology. Through two years of R&D, the two companies developed eco-friendly packaging materials that achieve the same quality level as existing packaging materials.

LG Display plans to first apply this packaging material to automotive display panels starting in January next year. They also plan to gradually expand its application to other product groups.

Taehyung Kwak, Head of Materials Research at LG Display (Executive Director), said, "We will strive to practice Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management through the development of eco-friendly materials and provide differentiated customer value."

LG Display also announced that by using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels, it has reduced plastic usage by more than 90% compared to liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. Unlike LCD panels, OLED panels do not use backlights, resulting in less plastic usage and lower carbon emissions. By increasing the use of iron metal materials, the parts recycling rate at product disposal was raised to 92.7%. In 2021, LG Display introduced the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, which comprehensively evaluates all environmental impacts occurring throughout the product lifecycle. Through this, they achieved results such as reducing material and component usage, cutting greenhouse gas and power consumption during manufacturing, developing low-power consumption products, and reducing waste at the disposal stage.