With a rapidly evolving plastics industry and increasingly urgent climate challenges, SK Global Chemical joins leaders Dow, LyondellBasell & NOVA Chemicals, among others, in paving differentiated and globally sustainable ways forward for the industry

On July 27 (KST), SK Global Chemical (SKGC) has announced an investment in two of Closed Loop Partners’ funds – the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund and the Closed Loop Leadership Fund – to advance circular business models, scalable recycling technologies, and materials recovery infrastructure in the U.S. and Canada. This investment will help increase the supply of high-quality recycled content to meet growing demand, return valuable materials to manufacturing supply chains and ultimately reduce extraction of virgin resources. SKGC and Closed Loop Partners’ collaboration is a critical step in demonstrating what the future of a fully circular plastics system could look like and sending a market signal to others to spur recycling markets that must mature more quickly.

“Plastics manufacturers play a key role in building circular systems for plastics, they are at the early stages of the supply chain, helping determine the quality, sustainability and recyclability of the plastics that flow through the entire system.” said Ron Gonen, Founder & CEO of Closed Loop Partners. “It’s critical that these stakeholders adapt to the changing times and expectations; antiquated business models that rely on virgin plastics are no longer viable when confronted with limited natural resources and mounting plastic waste,” he added. “SKGC’s investment in our funds helps catalyze circular plastics supply chains in the U.S. and Canada, while also providing for the exchange of best practices with Asia, accelerating a circular economy at a much larger scale.”

SKGC’s investment with Closed Loop Partners builds on the company’s “Zero Plastic Waste” goals and efforts to bolster innovations across the plastics recycling system. Under its “Green for Better Life” strategy, SKGC continues to grow plastics recycling capacity globally. The company aims to recycle 900 thousand tons of plastic waste per year by 2025, lower its use of plastics, and make all of its products eco-friendly, by 2027. SKGC has formed strategic partnerships with cutting-edge advanced plastics recycling companies in North America, invested on-the-ground in new facilities that transform plastic waste into virgin-like plastics, and continues to optimize mechanical recycling infrastructure to reduce overall virgin plastic consumption.

One of the reasons SKGC chose to collaborate with Closed Loop Partners is to expand its connections to a roster of leading companies working toward the circular economy, comprising both multinationals with extensive scale and emerging innovators introducing differentiated sustainable solutions. SKGC’s investment with Closed Loop Partners aligns with ambitions of its parent company, SK Innovation, to transition from  “Carbon to Green” by investing more than USD 20 billion in five years.

SKGC’s investment in Closed Loop Partners’ Circular Plastics Fund, launched in May with Founding Investors Dow, LyondellBasell and NOVA Chemicals, brings the Fund closer to its goal of deploying USD 100 million to advance the recovery of plastics in the U.S. and Canada. The Fund’s catalytic strategy fills investment gaps to spur recycling markets, attracting additional corporate investors and financial institutions and accelerating capital inflows beyond the Fund’s own commitments. The Fund will invest in three strategic areas to increase the amount of high-quality recycled plastic available:

● Access – Increasing the collection of targeted polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plastics by advancing current and next-generation material collection systems, including transportation, logistics and recycling sortation technologies and infrastructure.

● Optimization – Upgrading recycling systems to more efficiently aggregate, classify and sort the targeted plastics to increase the total amount of high-quality plastic, including food-grade and medical-grade plastic, sent for re-manufacturing.

● Manufacturing – Investing in facilities and equipment that manufacture finished products, packaging or related goods using recycled content, including recycled PE and PP.

The Closed Loop Leadership Fund, Closed Loop Partners’ private equity arm, is a complementary market rate strategy that proves the growth and profitability of circular economy business models. The Fund acquires and scales best-in-class companies along the value chain to build circular supply chains in the U.S., focusing on extending the useful life of materials, including plastics and packaging, organics, electronics and apparel. The Fund’s value creation strategy focuses on driving resilient profitability for businesses that optimize supply chains, keep materials out of landfill and advance the circular economy.

Since its founding in 2014, Closed Loop Partners has made more than 50 investments, diverting more than 4,600 million pounds of material from landfills and back into manufacturing supply chains. The New York-based investment firm and innovation center accelerates the circular economy through a suite of solutions, including investments and research in design innovation that reduces material use and resource extraction, reuse systems that extend the useful life of valuable materials, and mechanical recycling infrastructure and advanced recycling technologies that together help recover plastics. Building on its proven track record, and extensive ecosystem of entrepreneurs, industry experts, global consumer goods companies, retailers, financial institutions and municipalities in North America, Closed Loop Partners is well positioned to form key partnerships and drive strategic investments to advance SKGC’s goals.

CEO of SK Global Chemical Na Kyung-soo said, “We aim to build systems that keep plastics in circulation, meeting the needs of people around the world, without compromising the natural environment.” “Our investment with Closed Loop Partners not only helps us advance these goals, but opens doors to new strategic partnerships with leading companies that share the same vision of advancing circular systems for plastics. 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. We look forward to working with Closed Loop Partners and their network to drive toward our shared goals.”

In accordance with SKGC’s strategic imperatives, by 2025 SKGC will invest USD 500 million to build a cutting edge advanced plastics recycling plant in Korea.

[Photos]

(Photo 1) SK Global Chemical’s CI logo

(Photo 2) Closed Loop Partners’ logo