"Let's Accelerate Plastic Waste Recycling" SK President Visits North American Partner Company in Person

Daniel Solomita, CEO of Loop Industries (left in the photo), and Na Kyung-soo, President of SK Geocentric, are taking a commemorative photo in front of the production facility in Quebec, Canada.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] Na Kyung-soo, President of SK Geocentric, visited technology partnering companies in the United States and Canada to explore plastic recycling solutions, the company announced on the 17th.

President Na and key executives embarked on a week-long business trip to North America starting on the 11th, visiting Loop Industries in Canada (on the 12th), Brightmark in the U.S. (on the 14th), and PureCycle Technologies (on the 16th). SK Geocentric, a subsidiary of SK Innovation specializing in eco-friendly chemical businesses, is refining its business model to establish a circular economy for plastics, including chemical recycling of waste plastics. The company explained that they toured each company's factories in person and held management meetings to concretize cooperation plans.

The companies visited are technology partners of SK Geocentric and possess chemical recycling technologies such as depolymerization, pyrolysis, and high-purity polypropylene (PP) extraction methods. While plastics have been criticized for having lower recycling rates compared to other materials, the industry expects that the activation of chemical recycling technologies will make recycling significantly easier.

Na Kyung-soo, President of SK Geocentric (right), is receiving an explanation about high-purity recycled PP at the PureCycle Technologies plant in the United States.

President Na inspected the partnership directly on-site and discussed specific cooperation plans such as commercializing factories and establishing joint ventures (JVs). The company stated, "This meeting to strengthen cooperation will accelerate our transformation into an eco-friendly urban oilfield company."

In June, SK Geocentric invested $56.5 million in Loop Industries, acquiring a 10% stake and exclusive rights in the Asian region. They are conducting technology verification and feasibility assessments to build a global plant. In January of this year, they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Brightmark for commercializing a large-scale pyrolysis plant and facility investment, and they decided to form a JV with PureCycle.

President Na said, "We have strengthened partnerships with the world’s leading companies that recycle waste plastics to create urban oilfields," adding, "We will establish and execute an eco-friendly business acceleration strategy to contribute to building a circular economy for waste plastics."

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