Lotte Chemical Establishes First Regional Cluster to Expand Plastic Resource Circular Economy

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Lotte Chemical, Seongnam City, and Seongnam Environmental Movement Federation held a regional cluster agreement ceremony at Seongnam City Hall on the 21st, marking the first collaboration among the public sector, private sector, and corporations to expand the circular use of plastic resources.

This agreement is the first case where the public sector, private sector, and corporations have joined forces to reduce plastic environmental issues together through Lotte Chemical's plastic resource circular activity 'Project LOOP' and Seongnam City's and Seongnam Environmental Movement Federation's Seongnam Resource Circulation Store 're100 (recycling 100%)'.

This regional cluster plans to install a total of 76 PET bottle separation collection bins: 70 bins in 9 complexes of Cheongsol Village located in Seongnam City, and 6 bins at 'Seongnam Resource Circulation Store re100' locations in Sujeong-gu and Jungwon-gu. The separation bins are designed as separate collection boxes that allow only transparent PET bottles, labels, and caps to be separated and collected, improving the current system where PET bottles and other plastics are mixed during collection.

Additionally, the Seongnam Environmental Movement Federation will produce and distribute separation collection guides that remove labels and foreign substances from PET bottles, and will conduct education and campaigns centered around the locations where the separation bins are installed to encourage active participation from residents.

Kim Kyo-hyun, CEO of Lotte Chemical, stated, "This is a meaningful first project that enables the public sector, private sector, and corporations to perform their roles from their respective positions through continuous interest in plastic recycling," adding, "We will strengthen efforts to use plastics correctly and to expand and establish a culture of resource circulation."

Eun Soo-mi, Mayor of Seongnam City, said, "When items previously treated as waste are properly separated, they become highly valuable recyclable materials that circulate as 100% resources. It is time for the public sector, private sector, and corporations to cooperate and practice this," and added, "I hope this will become an excellent model starting from Seongnam City and expanding nationwide."

Choi Jae-chul, Co-chairman of the Seongnam Environmental Movement Federation, expressed expectations that "based on the specialized collection project for transparent waste PET bottles at Seongnam Resource Circulation Store re100, a culture of resource circulation practice where recyclable waste is cleanly managed and separated from households will spread."

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