Korea's SK Chemicals to make chemically recycled food containers

South Korea's SK Chemicals on Tuesday said it has joined forces with Poolinglim P&P to make the nation's first food containers using chemically recycled materials.

Both companies concluded a contract on manufacturing food containers made from such green materials at SK Chemicals headquarters in the Pangyo area of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

Chemical recycling is defined as the technique of making polymer plastics by breaking down discarded plastic until they are again pure raw materials.

The agreement says both sides will actively cooperate in the development and mass production of a range of food containers with SK Chemicals' Skypet CR, which is 99% composed of chemically recycled raw materials.

SK Chemicals will provide the Skypet CR required to manufacture green containers by Poonglim P&P, which will use the material to make containers made from 99% recycled raw materials, and acquire the global recycle standard certification.

Skypet CR emits 70% less greenhouse gases than the petrochemical-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) materials. Following last year's release of the Skypet CR-using bottled water brand Reborn of Jeju Samdasoo, the material also grabbed attention for lowering CO2 emissions in textiles and packaging film.

Poonglim P&P President Lee Dong-gyu said, "Our plans are to develop and utilize low-carbon containers that can cut greenhouse gases so that we practice environmental, social and governance management (ESG)."

Kim Eung-soo, head of SK Chemicals' co-polyester business division, added, "We plan to achieve a 'bottle-to-bottle' circulatory economy through Skypet CR and further improve our business system based on ESG management."

Write to Seo-woo Jang at suwu@hankyung.com