Jeju Samdasoo Reborn as an Eco-Friendly Bag

'Rebirth for a Second Chance, Reversal! Jeju Regional Resource Circulation Project'
First PET Bottle Upcycling Product 'Pleatsmama Jeju Edition' Released

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Jeju Samdasoo PET bottles have been reborn as high-quality eco-friendly knit bags.

On the occasion of Environment Day on the 5th, Jeju Samdasoo announced that eco-friendly fashion items made by recycling PET bottles collected in Jeju into regenerated fibers will be launched this month.

This product was created as part of the "Rebirth for Recycling! Jeju Regional Resource Circulation Project," jointly conducted by Jeju Development Corporation, Jeju Province, Hyosung TNC, and Pleats Mama. This is the first time that PET bottles collected domestically have been released as a product.

South Korea produces a large amount of high-quality transparent PET bottles for bottled water, but until now, they were mixed with other plastics during disposal, limiting their use as regenerated fibers. In particular, the production of long, high-purity man-made fiber chips for clothing required importing waste PET from overseas.

However, through the project to establish a resource circulation system in the Jeju region, it has become possible to extract high-quality recycled yarn using domestically sourced PET bottles, enabling the introduction of products that are environmentally meaningful and upgraded in quality compared to before.

This project operates in a structure where Jeju Development Corporation supplies PET bottles collected to Hyosung TNC, which transforms them into high-quality man-made fibers, and eco-friendly fashion startup Pleats Mama uses these fibers to produce eco-friendly bags.

To this end, since January, the corporation has established a system for producing recycled raw materials by installing separate collection facilities for transparent PET bottles at 71 recycling assistance centers in the province, in cooperation with the local nonprofit organization 'Jejuin Social Cooperative.'

The resulting "Pleats Mama Jeju Edition" consists of four types: summer knits, shopper bags, net bags, and nano bags. It features colors inspired by Jeju symbols such as tangerines, the sea, Bijarim Forest, and basalt, expressing Jeju’s identity.

A representative from Jeju Development Corporation said, “The ‘Pleats Mama Jeju Edition’ made by recycling Samdasoo PET bottles is an important indicator showing the importance and potential of resource circulation,” adding, “We are striving to minimize environmental impact throughout the entire process from product manufacturing to upcycling, creating value from precious resources.”

Meanwhile, since 2017, Jeju Development Corporation, which has prioritized eco-friendly management, has been minimizing environmental impact throughout the entire process from production to upcycling of Jeju Samdasoo and establishing a complete resource circulation system.

In particular, considering resource circulation from the production stage, they have converted Samdasoo PET bottles into single-material colorless bottles to make recycling easier, and applied synthetic resin materials with a specific gravity of less than 1 to labels and bottle caps. In 2018, they applied a heat-alkaline adhesive to make labels easier to remove. Last year, they introduced label separation markings on 500ml products and recently received an excellent recycling grade in packaging material and structure evaluations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.