SK Chemicals Commercializes Korea's First 'Chemical Recycling PET'

Chemical Recycling PET 'Bottle to Bottle'
Realizing a Circular Economy for Plastics
Expected Sales of 200 Billion KRW by 2025

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoonju Hwang] SK Chemicals is supplying PET produced by recycling waste plastic for the first time in Korea to the food container market. With full-scale mass production this year, the company plans to achieve annual sales of 200 billion KRW by 2025. It is also accelerating ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management through the establishment of a plastic circular economy.

SK Chemicals announced on the 25th that it has established a mass production system for 'SKYPET CR,' a chemically recycled PET (CR-PET), the first of its kind in Korea, and has begun full-scale supply. With this, SK Chemicals has completed the lineup of chemically recycled ▲copolyester ▲PET. Last October, SK Chemicals became the first in the world to commercially produce 'chemically recycled copolyester.'

CR-PET refers to PET that is remanufactured using the 'depolymerization' technology, which recovers raw materials capable of producing clean PET through chemical reactions from collected PET bottles. This enables PET bottles to be repeatedly used as PET bottles, forming the core of the 'plastic resource circulation' system.

SK Chemicals plans to produce and supply the 'SKYPET CR' product starting this month and intends to further increase production volume depending on market conditions. Since 'SKYPET CR' is manufactured from raw materials chemically decomposed back to pure raw material state, there is no contamination or quality degradation from foreign substances, making it safe for use in food containers.

In particular, as mandatory regulations for the use of recycled plastic raw materials are being introduced domestically and internationally, the recycled PET market is expected to continue growing. The Korean government will impose mandatory use of recycled raw materials on domestic plastic manufacturers starting next year. For PET, the 'Korean (K)-Circular Economy Implementation Plan' announced last month requires that at least 30% of raw materials be recycled raw materials by 2030. Meeting the 30% mandatory use of recycled raw materials by 2030 will require 150,000 tons of recycled PET annually.

According to last year's Wood Mackenzie report, the global PET market size is about 90 million tons annually. Recycled PET accounts for about 11%, or 9.7 million tons, mostly 'mechanically recycled (MR-PET)' PET, and the CR-PET market is just beginning.

Jaejun Jung, Head of New Business Development at SK Chemicals, said, "We expect the 'SKYPET CR' business to grow to 200 billion KRW by 2025," adding, "Through 'SKYPET CR,' we plan to realize a 'Bottle to Bottle' circular economy and further strengthen our business system based on ESG management."

Meanwhile, SK Chemicals has been building a global value chain (GVC) for the production of chemically recycled plastic raw materials over the past several years. Last year, it invested in 'Shue,' a Chinese company where waste plastic collection is easy, and expanded a stable waste plastic raw material supply system by signing MOUs for waste plastic collection with Jeju Development Corporation, Hwaseong City in Gyeonggi Province, and Gwangsan District in Gwangju Metropolitan City.

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