Beverage Industry Where Eco-Friendly Choices Are No Longer Optional but Essential

Lotte Chilsung Beverage Icis ECO

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Beverage bottles have started to shed their labels. With the rise of eco-friendly trends in the beverage industry, 'Eco-Tap' labels that can be easily removed or transparent PET products without labels have become the norm.

According to the beverage industry on the 9th, eco-friendly management has become a necessity rather than an option. Since December last year, in line with the mandatory separate disposal of transparent PET bottles, eco-friendly products with removable labels have been continuously introduced. Along with this, as ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management has become a hot topic, competition for eco-friendly products in the industry has also intensified.

In the bottled water market, Lotte Chilsung Beverage fired the starting shot for label-free products. In January last year, it was the first in the industry to launch the label-free bottled water 'Icis ECO,' and in February this year, it even removed the labels attached to the PET bottle caps of bundled Icis products. Lotte Chilsung Beverage expects to reduce about 5.4 million sheets of packaging materials this year through label-free bottled water.

In May this year, Nongshim introduced 'Label-Free Baeksansu.' With the launch of label-free Baeksansu, Nongshim expects to save more than 60 tons of label film annually. In June, Jeju Samdasoo, the industry leader, also released a label-removed product. Hite Jinro Beverage, which launched the label-free 'Seoksu' in February, plans to convert more than 50% of its PET production to label-free products, including bundled sales in the future.

Additionally, Dongwon F&B launched 'EcoBori,' the first domestic tea beverage with removable labels, and started lightweighting PET bottles. Coca-Cola began selling its carbonated water 'Seagram' without labels, expanding eco-friendly products across the industry from bottled water to carbonated water.

Seoul Jangsu's 'Jangsu Saeng Makgeolli' Product with Eco Tap Applied

The trend of label-free products has also expanded to hotels. Lotte Hotel replaced all complimentary bottled water provided in rooms at its three domestic brand hotels (Lotte Hotel, L7 Hotel, Lotte City Hotel) with label-free products. As of 2019, about 3 million bottles of water containers were used annually, and if the labels, each measuring 22 cm in width, were connected, the saved label length would reach approximately 660 km.

The Makgeolli industry has also joined the expansion of eco-friendly products. Seoul Jangsu applies 'Eco-Tap' labels to all its raw Makgeolli products. The Eco-Tap label leaves no residue when removed, which is expected to increase the recycling rate of PET containers. In June last year, although Seoul Jangsu was not subject to the mandatory use of transparent PET bottles, it led the industry's eco-friendly movement by completely switching the 'Jangsu Raw Makgeolli' bottles to eco-friendly colorless PET containers.

A beverage industry official explained, "As PET bottle recycling issues have emerged, eco-friendly policies in the industry have become a necessity rather than an option," adding, "Among consumers, awareness of eco-friendly products has expanded, and the number of cases choosing label-free products even for the same product has greatly increased."

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