LG Chem Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea) will partner with Coupang, Korea’s largest e-commerce company, to launch an eco-friendly project for the recovery and recycling of plastic waste. This project aims to reduce the surge in waste created from deliveries and to circulate the relevant resources.
With this agreement, Coupang will collect 3,000 tons per year of stretch film that are put to waste from fulfillment centers across the country and deliver it to LG Chem. Stretch film is a plastic wrap product typically used for logistics packaging applications. LG Chem will convert this waste into recycled materials that can be used again for packaging and supply it to Coupang.
This bilateral eco-friendly project aims to recycle plastic resources that can be collected from Coupang’s fulfillment center into polyethylene (PE) film through LG Chem’s Post-Consumer Recycle (PCR) technology. PCR is a recycling technology that converts waste plastic into raw materials in the form of plastic pellets through reprocessing such as sorting, crushing, and washing. PCR products are typically used by mixing them with existing products in a certain proportion to improve the properties that have fallen due to the nature of recycled resins.
Through a pilot operation of the stretch film collection and recycling project with Coupang for about three months since last June, LG Chem has succeeded in developing a recycled film that can realize the same physical properties as existing products while maintaining up to 60% of the PCR raw material content. Eco-friendly materials recycled with LG Chem’s PCR technology will be applied to Coupang’s poly bags for future delivery of goods.
The two companies plan to build a resource circulation ecosystem that can collect and recycle the poly bags by actively utilizing Coupang’s logistics system. In addition to poly bags, the two companies also decided to actively cooperate on the idea to collect and recycle delivery waste such as air cap cushioning materials from customers using Coupang’s Fresh Bags, which are used to deliver Coupang’s groceries. They can be washed and reused, and are used as an eco-friendly alternative to regular paper boxes.