A $25 million investment fund set up by three plastic resin makers to support recycling is getting $5 million in additional money from South Korea's SK Global Chemical Co. Ltd.
The July 27 announcement from the Closed Loop Partners, which administers the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund, said the money will help support additional supply of recycled content, recycling technologies and recovery infrastructure.
The announcement also said SK would contribute a separate $5 million to Closed Loop Leadership Fund.
It follows a May announcement from New York-based CLP and Dow Inc., LyondellBasell Industries and Nova Chemicals Corp. that they're putting $25 million into the plastics fund, with the goal of eventually having $100 million to invest.
"It's critical that [plastics manufacturers] adapt to the changing times and expectations,"said Ron Gonen, CLP CEO and founder. "Antiquated business models that rely on virgin plastics are no longer viable when confronted with limited natural resources and mounting plastic waste."
CLP said the fund aims to fill investment gaps in three areas: increasing collection of polyethylene and polypropylene, upgrading materials sorting within recycling systems and boosting manufacturing of finished goods with recycled content.
The announcement said SK's contribution would go toward both the circular plastics fund and the Closed Loop Leadership Fund.
SK said the investment builds on its "zero plastic waste" strategy, which includes a target of recycling 900,000 metric tons of plastic waste per year by 2025.
SK said the investment aims to help it build stronger partnerships with other companies working on sustainability issues, as well as boost reuse of plastics materials.
"As a plastics manufacturer, we recognize our responsibility in transforming plastics supply chains to collect and reuse existing materials, and know that collaborating across industries is essential to system-wide impact," said SK CEO Kyung-soo Na.