“Dominating the Waste Plastic Value Chain” SK chemicals Forms Partnership with Global Waste Resource Collection Innovation Company

– Cooperation MOU signed with Lovere, a leading Chinese company in household waste collection and sorting
– Joint investment and business commencement in 2024… Expected to create new value in waste plastic sector

SEONGNAM, South Korea and GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — SK chemicals, the world’s first to commercialize circular recycling (chemical recycling) products, meets with a leading company in waste collection and sorting to drive innovation. 

SK chemicals (CEO Ahn Jae-hyun) announced on the 25th that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the joint development of waste plastic recycling business in Guangdong, China, at the headquarters of Shanghai Yuekun Environmental Protection Technology (hereinafter Lovere), a leading waste recycling enterprise located in Shanghai, China.

The signing ceremony was attended by Ahn Jae-hyun, CEO of SK chemicals, Kang Seok-ho, Strategy Center Director of SK chemicals, Chen Xuefeng, CEO of Lovere, and Ni Chun, the business general manager of Lovere.  

Lovere is a leading company in household waste collection and sorting in China and is a subsidiary of ATRenew, an electronic device collection and recycling company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Lovere collects and recycles 420,000 tons of household waste annually in 37 cities in China. It is regarded as a leading company in innovating the recycling value chain with the Chinese government through executing a reward program based on the self-developed AI-based sorting automation devices and digital services along with the datafication of waste flow.

Through the MOU agreement, SK chemicals plans to develop a waste plastic collection and sorting business with Lovere in China starting with Guangdong Province, where its circular recycling plant is located. Both companies have come to secure waste PET, a raw material for circular recycling, through joint investment.

China is one of the countries emitting the most waste plastics globally and, simultaneously, is a major consumer of circular recycled materials. SK chemicals started collaboration with Lovere aiming to protect the global environment from China, which will become a home of waste plastics.

The circular recycling technology of SK chemicals, abundant resources of China, and the collection and sorting system of Lovere are combined to address carbon reduction and waste issues.

Industry observers note that SK chemicals went beyond solving waste issues through circular recycling technology and has taken a step closer to completing a closed loop leading to the “collection-sorting-recycled material production” by expanding the value chain to the collection and sorting stages of plastics.

Moreover, SK chemicals is evaluated to have also stably secured raw materials to circular recycle “copolyester,” its core business, capturing business viability as well.  

With the strengthening of global regulations, the recycled plastics market is expected to reach 600 trillion won by 2050. Thus, attention from the global market toward SK chemicals, which rapidly completed the recycled plastic value chain, is anticipated to increase even more.

SK chemicals plans to evolve into a company providing plastic recycling solutions to global manufacturers and brands through the construction of recycling clusters and digital solution building, starting with this MOU.

Ahn Jae-hyun, the CEO of SK chemicals, said, “In a situation where global environmental regulations are steadily strengthening, circular recycling technology is not an option, but a necessity,” and added, “We will not stop at being a company that simply produces recycled plastic materials but will evolve into a company leading the resolution of global environmental issues through the realization of a closed loop system.”