Lotte Chemical to back five waste-plastic recycling ventures, expand product commercialization

[Financial News] Lotte Chemical has selected five ventures in the waste-plastic recycling sector and will support their commercialization. This year, it expanded the program’s eligibility beyond producers of recycled materials to include companies developing products and services that use them.
Lotte Chemical said on the 30th that it had held a signing ceremony for the fifth cohort of Project Loop Social, its support program for resource-circulation ventures, at its headquarters in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on the 29th. Attendees included Lotte Chemical CEO Young-Jun Lee and representatives of the five selected companies.
Project Loop Social is a program through which Lotte Chemical identifies ventures involved in waste-plastic recycling and supports their commercialization. It launched as a pilot in 2020 with eight social ventures and has since supported a total of 16 companies through its formal first- through fourth-cohort programs.
Five companies with the capabilities to develop and commercialize products and services using recycled materials were selected for this year’s fifth cohort. Lotte Chemical plans to provide them with commercialization funding, expert consultations, business development programs, online training and help finding sales channels.
The five selected companies are Placycle, Frag, Lowrit Collective, Eomtech and Libation.
Placycle has technology for chemically recycling waste polycarbonate. Frag operates a product brand using recycled materials and an NFC-based product platform. Lowrit Collective manufactures products by processing waste plastic through rotational molding.
Eomtech manufactures composite railway sleepers using industrial by-products such as waste plastic. Libation supports every stage of product development, from materials planning and design to production and delivery.
Young-Jun Lee, CEO of Lotte Chemical, said the goal of the fifth cohort of Project Loop Social is “to build a circular-economy business model by commercializing products made with recycled materials and connecting them with markets,” adding that the company would support the selected companies’ commercialization efforts.

[email protected] Kim Mi-hee Reporter