SK Chemical Targets North American Market with Recycling Technology... Participates in NPE 2024

SK Chemicals participated in NPE 2024, held from the 6th to the 10th at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando, Florida, USA. A bird's-eye view of the SK Chemicals booth at NPE. Photo by SK Chemicals

SK Chemicals is promoting global market expansion by showcasing technologies leading the circular recycling industry in North America, following its participation in Chinaplas last month.

SK Chemicals announced on the 13th that it participated in NPE 2024 (NPE 2024: The Plastics Show·NPE), held from the 6th to the 10th at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando, Florida, USA.

NPE is an event hosted by the American Plastics Association and is the largest plastics trade show in the Americas, covering all industries from automotive to medical, consumer goods, and construction. It is held every three years with the goal of promoting innovation and sustainability in plastics, and is considered one of the three major exhibitions alongside China’s Chinaplas and Germany’s K Trade Fair (K Show).

In line with this trend, SK Chemicals showcased a wide range of sustainable materials utilizing circular recycling technology at NPE.

The lineup attracted visitors’ attention with various materials including the high-performance circular recycled copolyester “ECOTRIA CR” produced based on chemical recycling technology, the PET material “SKYPET CR,” and the copolyester “ECOTRIA CLARO,” which can be classified and recycled as post-consumer PET.

Circular recycling is a term referring to SK Chemicals’ unique chemical recycling method. Unlike physical recycling, which involves shredding and washing waste plastics to reuse them as raw materials, chemical recycling breaks down plastics to the molecular level and then reuses them as raw materials, allowing infinite recycling without quality degradation such as loss of transparency.

They also exhibited products already commercialized using circular recycling. These included finished products that attracted visitors’ attention, such as various cosmetic containers, home appliances, and consumer goods from global brands applying ECOTRIA CR, as well as tire cords and Samdasoo Reborn, which passed strict quality tests from well-known brand companies using SKYPET CR, leading to actual product commercialization.

Sangmin Jeong, Head of Marketing and Operations at SK Chemicals, said, “We were able to dispel the prejudice that recycled plastics have limitations in physical properties and quality by meeting clients with actual products applying circular recycling materials at NPE, following Chinaplas.” He added, “We plan to actively continue marketing by leveraging SK Chemicals’ differentiation as the world’s first company to have a commercial plant for circular recycling materials and achieve product commercialization.”

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