In a world-first, South Korean company SK Chemicals Co says it has begun mass production of Ecotria CR, a renewable plastic made from chemically recycled materials.
The company started mass-producing Ecotria CR at its Ulsan plant using materials derived from chemically recycled waste plastics. In technical terms, Ecotria is a polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) copolyester product.
The company will be supplied with 20,000 tons of raw materials annually by the Chinese company Shuye Environmental Technology Co.
SK Chemicals plans to produce more than 10,000 tons ofEcotria CR by next year and supply it to major cosmetics brands in and outside of Korea.
Chemical recycling refers to the process in which waste plastics are decomposed into their pure material state and then used for the production of high polymer plastics.
Compared to physical recycling methods, in which waste plastics are pulverised and processed, this method prevents the deterioration of product quality while enabling recycling in a repeated manner.
The company noted that the demand forEcotria CR would be high in the areas of cosmetics containers, food packaging, home electronics and daily necessities since it features a high level of safety and materialises copolyester’s inherent features.
This story was originally published by Korea Bizwire.
