LG Chem has entered into an MOU with Netspa, a Busan, South Korea-based resource circulation company, to set up a resource circulation system which will see Netspa supplying marine plastic waste to LG Chem’s pyrolysis oil plant in Dangjin, Chungnam.
Under the MOU, LG Chem will therefore secure the supply of the raw materials it will need for its Seokmun National Industrial Park pyrolysis oil plant, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2024. Netspa will sort and process the plastics from the marine waste, which LG Chem will use as input to produce feedstock from which it will produce recycled plastics.
The resource circulation partnership between the two companies will serve both to protect the marine ecosystem but also result in a threefold reduction of the carbon emission associated with plastics production.
About 50,000 tons of marine waste, including discarded fish nets, are generated every year in Korea. But collecting this waste has been difficult, and even when it has been collected, it has been notoriously difficult to treat. Until now, therefore, it has for the most part, simply been left or incinerated.
The initiative fits within LG Chem’s ambition to achieve net zero by 2050, a goal which the company is pursuing through the development of eco-friendly plastics using bio-materials, establishing a bio-mass power plant joint venture, producing plastics through carbon capture, and more.