SK Chemicals Co., a chemical manufacturer under South Korea’s SK Group, said Wednesday that it has adopted the use of chemically recycled polyethylene terephthalate (CR-PET) for all pork cutlet and steak sauce containers of local food manufacturer Ottogi Corp.
It is the first time the food industry has developed and commercialized a container that is fully made of chemically recycled materials, the company said.
Chemical recycling is SK chemicals’ technology that decomposes waste plastics into molecules and makes them into raw materials for reuse. It has the advantage of maintaining high-quality properties and safety compared with the mechanical recycling method, in which waste plastics are washed for reuse or cut into flakes.
The recently renewed meat sauce container of Ottogi is 100 percent made of recycled PET known as SKYPET CR, which was jointly developed by SK Chemicals and Ottogi’s food packaging subsidiary Poonglim P&P Co. through a memorandum of understanding last year.
Applying SKYPET CR to sauce containers significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional petroleum-based PET, enabling SK chemicals to respond to consumer demand for eco-friendly products. It also acts as a competitive edge in exports to countries with stricter greenhouse gas regulations such as Europe.
Ottogi plans to expand the use of SK chemicals’ SKYPET CR in other product lines.
SK Chemicals have been expanding the use of its chemical recycled materials, including SKYPET CR for RE: Born of mineral water brand Jeju Samdasoo.
In March, the company acquired assets related to the chemical recycled raw materials and pet business of China’s Shuye Environmental Technology Co. and established the foundation for a stable supply of recycled plastic raw materials by setting up an entity in Shantou, China.
“We will continue to expand SK Chemicals’ chemical recycled products to a wide range of industrial materials,” said Kim Eung-soo, head of the co-polyester division at SK Chemicals.
