SK Chemical and Jeju Samdasoo Establish PET Bottle Recycling Ecosystem

Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Development Corporation Collects Transparent PET Bottles
SK Chemical Uses Recycled PET Bottles as Raw Material for Copolyester Production

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] SK Chemicals and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Development Corporation, which produces and sells 'Jeju Samdasoo,' have joined forces to establish a domestic PET bottle recycling ecosystem.

On the 5th, SK Chemicals announced that it signed a business agreement to build a 'PET Bottle Recycling Ecosystem' at the Jeju Development Corporation office building in Jeju Island.

According to the agreement, Jeju Development Corporation will collect high-quality transparent PET bottles and provide them to SK Chemicals. SK Chemicals plans to process these into recycled PET (r-PET) and use it as raw material for copolyester production. The recycled material produced in this way will expand the recycling value chain into cosmetics containers, textiles, and home appliances markets, leading to the revitalization of the domestic circular economy.

SK Chemicals launched the copolyester 'ECOTRIA R' using recycled PET (r-PET) as raw material in 2019. It is the only company producing copolyester domestically. Recently, in line with the expansion of the eco-friendly plastics market, it has been focusing on expanding its chemical recycling product portfolio. As part of this effort, in May, it secured exclusive rights to chemical recycling raw materials and chemical recycled PET (CR PET) products in the Korean market through equity investment in a Chinese recycling company.

Additionally, SK Chemicals and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Development Corporation will collaborate on developing the nation's first chemical recycled water bottle. Chemical recycled PET (CR PET) is a technology that decomposes plastic back into pure raw material form to manufacture plastic, enabling repeated recycling without quality degradation of plastic products, making it a more suitable material for water bottles.

To this end, Jeju Development Corporation plans to provide all high-quality Samdasoo PET bottles collected nationwide through the collection program of the Samdasoo app, Jeju Samdasoo's home delivery service platform, to SK Chemicals.

Jeon Gwang-hyun, CEO of SK Chemicals, said, "We expect this agreement to establish an eco-friendly plastic circulation system and create synergy," adding, "We plan to further strengthen our ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management system through the development of eco-friendly products such as chemical recycled PET (CR-PET)."

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