LG Chem Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea) announced a partnership with an innovative Korean startup Innerbottle to create a “Plastic Eco-Platform” which will enable complete recycling of plastic cosmetic containers.
Innerbottle offers sustainable eco-friendly packaging solutions, with more than 50 intellectual property rights registered domestically and overseas. In 2019, the Company received Asia Development Bank’s “Start-Up of the Year” and “Red Dot Design Awards”, in recognition of the innovative function and design of their products.
Using the plastic materials provided by LG Chem, Innerbottle produces cosmetic containers. The used Innerbottle containers are collected through a dedicated logistics system, and then returned to LG Chem and Innerbottle who recycles them as raw materials for new production.
Since a unified container with only LG Chem plastic materials is collected and recycled through a dedicated system, plastic resources can be quickly and completely recycled 100%.
To achieve this, LG Chem plans to stably provide eco-friendly plastic materials that are used in the production of the containers by Innerbottle. The two companies will also create a distribution network and logistics collection system that can precisely track the path from container production to collection. The two companies plan to start off by applying the platform to cosmetic containers that Innerbottle is producing in the second half of this year, and then expand its application to food and medicine containers.
Innerbottle is producing a cosmetic container which has an embedded balloon-shaped “silicon pouch” inside a transparent plastic bottle. Since the cosmetic contents are only contained in the silicon pouch inside, the external plastic container can be recycled immediately without requiring an additional cleaning process. Also, due to the elasticity of the silicon pouch, the cosmetic contents can be used without leaving any residues.
This design is drawing attention as an eco-friendly package solution, and the company is receiving continuous inquiries for supply from global luxury cosmetics brands.
LG Chem plans to provide eco-friendly plastic materials such as PCR (Post Consumer Recycle), ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), and EP (Engineering Plastics) to Innerbottle, as a replacement for “OTHER” categorized plastic. In addition, LG Chem plans to conduct joint research to replace Innerbottle’s silicon pouch with LG Chem’s NB Latex (Nitrile Butadiene Latex).