■ A cooperation between an eco-friendly material enterprise and specialized paper manufacturer to take the lead in developing sustainable eco-friendly packaging materials

■ Cooperation for developing recycled packaging materials, planning to be broadened to a wider area such as functional paper development 

In accordance with its major shift in business structure from “Carbon to Green,” SK Geo Centric announced on the 15^th that it has joined hands with APP Group, a global paper producer to develop eco-friendly paper packaging material.

CEO of SK Geocentric Na Kyung-soo and Chairman of APP Group Huang Zhi Yuan attended the online signing event for the MOU on joint development of eco-friendly paper packaging material. Headquartered in Indonesia, APP Group is a paper specialized enterprise that produces and exports paper and pulp products to around 160 countries in the world.

Following the cooperative commitment, SK Geo Centric and APP Group will join hands for the development of new eco-friendly packaging materials in the field of paper material supply and development/introduction of eco-friendly materials such as recycled papers.

The significance of the MOU can be found from the fact that it is a partnership between SK Geo Centric – an eco-friendly material company that has various functional coating materials, and APP Group – a global paper company that aims to increase the utilization of paper materials, to develop a sustainable eco-friendly packaging solution together. At the moment, recycling paper packaging materials are challenging because most of them are mixed with plastic materials and it is difficult to separate the plastic from the paper materials. However, if the eco-friendly packaging solution jointly developed by the two companies is applied, i.e., once SK Geo Centric’s high-performance eco-friendly materials are added to APP Group’s paper packaging, it will be easier to recycle the materials, thereby contributing to solving environmental problems.

Paper was not widely used in the food packaging industry due to problems such as moisture barrier and strength. However, with the recent development of eco-friendly material technology, easily recyclable paper is emerging as an alternative to plastic materials. A good example is the use of aluminum alloys in paper packaging applications, which are found in outer covers for chocolates or cookies, aseptic milk cartons, etc.

In particular, when paper is combined with the eco-friendly material* produced by SK Geocentric, it is anticipated that it will retain the paper’s own physical property that makes it suitable for recycling while significantly complementing its drawbacks as it reinforces certain features necessary for packaging materials such as moisture resistance and adherence.

 (*) If a high-performance polyolefine material is applied to a paper material, it will change the paper’s physical property to be suitable for food packaging by wicking moisture off and also increases recyclability.

Starting from the eco-friendly paper packaging, SK Geo Centric and APP Group will expand the area of cooperation to developing high-performance paper.

Chairman of APP Group Huang Zhi Yuan commented, “We hope to contribute to the establishment of a green packaging ecosystem by developing paper packaging materials that are easy to recycle and have excellent functions through cooperation with SK Geo Centric, which owns eco-friendly material technology.” “APP Group will do its utmost effort to develop sustainable and eco-friendly packaging materials,” he added.

CEO of SK Geo Centric Na Kyung-soo accentuated, “We expect that our collaboration with APP Group, a specialized paper company, will create a great synergy in developing differentiated eco-friendly paper packaging materials that can replace plastic.” “SK Geo Centric will continue to expand the development of green packaging solutions through cooperation with various material companies like APP Group.”

Meanwhile, the packaging industry foresees that more recyclable eco-friendly paper packaging materials will gradually supersede the existing food and beverage packaging material made from plastics, including snack packets, PET bottles, alcoholic beverage bottles, etc. Recently, food and beverage and booze industries such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Absolut have launched their commercial products packaged in paper instead of plastic or glass such as chocolate packaging material, PET bottles, or liquor bottles.

[Photos]

(Photo 1, 2) (Left) CEO of SK Geo Centric Na Kyung-soo and (right) Chairman of APP Group Huang Zhi Yuan join the online MOU signing event on September 15th

(Photo 3) (Left) Chairman of APP Group Huang Zhi Yuan and (right) CEO of SK Geo Centric Na Kyung-soo