Recycled Plastic, Growing Interest from US and European Customers... Domestic Demand Still Insufficient

SK General Chemicals Announces Plan for Plastic Recycling Urban Oil Field Project
"Domestic Recycling Market Not Established... Needed by Overseas and Export Companies"

Na Kyung-su, President of SK General Chemical, is explaining about the plastic recycling business at the Brand New Day event held on the 31st.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] Na Kyung-soo, President of SK Comprehensive Chemical, said on the 31st, "Regarding recycled plastics, we receive more inquiries from global brand customers than from domestic ones," adding, "We expect that overseas brand owners will be the main customers for the time being."

At the Brand New Day event held that day, President Na revealed the company's mid- to long-term focus on businesses such as recycling waste plastics. He presented a circular economy business model that allows used plastics to be processed technically and chemically to be reused as fuel or plastic products, expressing regret that domestic interest is relatively low.

He said, "Even domestically, we receive many inquiries from companies that export a lot overseas, but from a domestic demand perspective, the market is not very active," adding, "There are needs from customers, and we believe we have the technological capabilities to take the lead."

The company has recently been actively pursuing partnerships with domestic and international firms possessing plastic recycling technologies to secure such technologies. There were technical limitations in recycling contaminated single plastic materials or composite plastic materials, but they have acquired technology that makes this possible. They have introduced technologies from companies with chemical recycling technologies such as depolymerization, which can be seen as a kind of dismantling technology, or pyrolysis, and are producing results through technology introduction, joint ventures (JV), and equity investments. While refining these technologies and equipping related facilities, they expect to achieve actual business results starting from 2024.

According to the company, a market for high-quality recycled plastics is just beginning to form in Europe. In Europe, recycled plastics of similar quality are about 1.7 times more expensive. In the upcoming carbon-neutral era, additional costs are likely to be incurred depending on how much carbon is emitted during the product manufacturing process. President Na said, "The carbon reduction effect of recycling methods is about 50%," adding, "We are verifying specific figures with the government, and if the carbon reduction effect is recognized, the premium added to recycled plastics can be attributed as profit."

He also foresees contributions to the domestic plastic waste treatment market, which has been criticized for being small-scale and underdeveloped. There are about ten companies in Korea that collect and process household waste, and the company plans to explore ways to apply advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital transformation, while developing its own post-processing technologies that small businesses find difficult to acquire, thereby increasing utility. President Na said, "At the recent Icheon Forum environmental session, we agreed with our affiliate SK Telecom to modernize the plastic recycling-related business and decided to focus the group's capabilities on this."

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