■ Held in Walkerhill Hotel for 2 days from Nov. 3^rd under the topic of “Circular Economy through Eco-friendly Packaging”

– Stem from the critical mind on environmental pollution, evolved into a platform to share the progress of the undertaken solutions and discuss mutual cooperation

– Composed of 6 sessions, SK Geo Centric to host a session for plastic recycling solutions for the circular economy

SK Innovation has announced that the “2021 Korea Eco-friendly Packaging Forum” is being held in 2 days, starting today (Nov. 3 KST) at Walkerhill Hotel, Seoul, South Korea, with the participation of its eco-friendly chemical subsidiary – SK Geo Centric.

“Korea Eco-friendly Packaging Forum” is an annual event that started in 2019. This year, the main topic of the event is named “Circular Economy through Eco-friendly Packaging.” Around 100 relevant companies, government agencies, and academia joined forces to change packaging materials, a major causes of current environmental issues, into eco-friendly ones.

The background of this annual forum is the shared concerns over environmental pollutions caused by plastic waste such as packaging materials. It developed into a platform for the industry, government, and academia to share the solution methodologies and the results of actual implementations and discuss measures to solve the impending issues, mutual cooperation, and necessary support.

Due to the current COVID-19, the forum this year also limits the number of offline participants while operating real-time online broadcasting like last year. The participants of the forum have decided to jointly make efforts to build a plastic circular economy by replacing packaging materials, which account for most of household plastic waste, with eco-friendly ones.

One of the most notable point of this year’s forum is the increased interest and participation of the Korean Ministry of Environment and its affiliated organization in the necessity of finding solutions for the problem of plastic wastes, which has been brought to the fore due to a growing demand for increased home delivery service and personal hygiene, owing to the pandemic. Minister of Environment, Han Jeoung-ae, who took part in the event through a celebratory video, expressed her gratitude for the efforts made by the packaging industry and asked for the continued attention and endeavor to build a circular economy.

“The efforts made by many businesses to cut back packaging wastes has become the engine to propel our society’s carbon neutrality and circular economy. The government will offer active institutional improvement and unstinting support in the entire course of resource circulation,” Minister Han said in the video. She added, “We will foster an environment where waste resources are not just simply recycled but used to create high value-added commodities and services.”

In a congratulatory address, SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun said, “I hope the eco-friendly forum will keep on developing as a platform in which the industry, government, and academia can share their ideas with others for the purpose of solving the problem of plastic wastes.” He also added, “SK Innovation and SK Geo Centric will pay particular attention to the environment in the ESG management and place the priority on the environment in all the management activities while listening to the experience and endeavors by the government, and leaders from the industrial and academic circles.”

The forum this year is divided into six sessions:

– On the first day: Circular Economy and ESG Management; Resource Circulation Activities for ESG Management in the Consumer Goods Industry; Plastic Recycling Solutions for a Circular Economy

– On the second day; ESG Management and Packaging Re-use Activities; Eco-friendly Packaging Standards and Utilization; Environmental Impact and Bio/Paper Packaging Industry

SK Geo Centric has hosted the “Plastic Recycling Solutions for a Circular Economy” session on the first day of the forum. The company has introduced its main chemical recycling strategies such as pyrolysis as well as the domestic mechanical recycling revitalization methods, and so on.

Other participants of the forum including Hyundai Motors and Coca-Cola have shared the plastic recycling trends and solutions in respective automobile and food industries. The Ministry of Environment will articulate the institutional system improvement methods to revitalize chemical recycling and hear opinions and comments from the industries.

In addition, the leading Korean and overseas companies in the cosmetics, logistics, bio, and paper industries will share their individual eco-friendly management activities and resource circulation cases. The government agencies and academia will introduce the ongoing researches and policy improvement methods and seek optimal measures available through relevant discussions.

“SK Geo Centric will focus on plastic recycling technology to give a fundamental solution to the problems associated with plastic and to establish a sustainable circular economy, and ultimately grow itself as an urban oil field company,” said CEO of SK Geo Centric Na Kyung-soo, who participated in the event.

[Photos]

(Photo 1, 2) Participants of the 2021 Korea Eco-friendly Packaging Forum take a commemorative photo at the event on November 3, 2021.

Front line, fifth from left: former Minister of Environment Cho Myung-rae, CEO of SK Innovation Kim Jun, CEO of SK Geo Centric Na Kyung-soo

(Photo 3) Participants of the 2021 Korea Eco-friendly Packaging Forum watch a congratulatory video from Minister of Environment Han Jeoung-ae