State spending on strategic industries to surge 43% next year
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Coupang’s fulfillment center (Coupang)
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South Korea’s leading chemical firm LG Chem has joined hands with the nation’s e-commerce giant Coupang to recycle 3,000 metric tons of plastic packaging waste and to offer a door-to-door plastic-waste retrieval system.
At Coupang’s headquarters in Jamsil, southeastern Seoul, LG Chem Executive Vice President Hur Sung-woo and Coupang Vice President Ryan Brown signed an agreement to collect and recycle 3,000 tons of stretch wrap being thrown away at Coupang fulfillment centers every year.
Utilizing its post-consumer recycle technology, LG Chem will turn the stretch wrap into raw plastic material that will be used to manufacture Coupang’s delivery bags.
Stretch wrap is an extremely elastic plastic film that is repeatedly wound around boxes and products to hold them tightly on pallets.
The two companies will also work together to launch a door-to-door plastic-waste retrieval service by utilizing Coupang’s nationwide delivery network.
When customers order food products online, Coupang packs them in company ice boxes and delivers them. Coupang also uses plastic air cushions to protect fragile items such as eggs. The two companies plan to recycle them as well.
“Every year, Korea collects 800,000 tons of polyethylene waste, 300,000 tons of it recyclable. However, 40 percent is either incinerated, buried or burned as fuel. We need an ecosystem to raise the recycling rate,” an LG Chem official said.
By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)