SK Global Chemical, a chemical affiliate of South Korea’s energy giant SK Innovation, has announced that it is transforms plastic waste into eco-friendly products.
Bale silage, the "giant marshmallows" lying in fields, is stacks of straws wrapped in multiple layers of white plastic film to be fermented and used as feed.
The plastic film used for baling is highly adhesive, which makes it easily contaminated. For this reason, it is rarely recycled and rather incinerated on the field.
In South Korean, the amount of plastic film waste generated from baling is almost 1,200 tons per year, and it is a major cause of environmental pollution.
To solve this problem, Dongmin Industrial Cooperative, a partner of SK Global Chemical, collects about 50 percent of the plastic film waste from farms and SK Global Chemical reuses them to create new products.
Dongmin Industrial Cooperative and SK Global Chemical mix the post-consumer recycled (PCR) Resin from the plastic film waste and virgin plastic to manufacture upcycled films and fabrics.
Unpleasant odor inevitably occurs in this process; however, Dongmin Industrial Cooperative managed to use its technology to eliminate the odor and achieve a quality almost similar to virgin plastic.
The upcycled films will be used for making the sacks to hold SK Global Chemical’s high-performance polyethylene, Nexlene™.
The use of these upcycled bags results in a reduction of carbon emissions of about 25 percent compared to using conventional bags.
The fabric made out of plastic film waste will be used to make the giveaways for the “Rest-cycle” campaign that SK Innovation, SK Global Chemical, and the Korea Expressway Corporation will launch together this summer at 199 expressway rest areas around the country.
The eco-friendly social ventures including Montsenu, Right Route, and Usisan, which are supported by SK Innovation, are also developing products using this upcycled fabric and will launch them in August.
