SK Chemicals targets banner fabric in closed-loop recycling push

SK Chemicals is working with local partners in South Korea to establish regional closed-loop recycling systems that turn discarded banners back into new banner fabric using chemical recycling.

The company said on 6 October it had formed the Waste Banner Resource Circulation Consortium with MOA, Daehan Media, Upcloth and the Resource Circulation Team of Seogwipo City on Jeju Island.

The partners aim to establish a system covering the collection, pre-processing, chemical recycling and remanufacturing of waste banners in the Gyeongsang, Honam and Jeju regions.

More than 1,000 tonnes of waste banners are generated annually across the three participating regions, the Korean chemicals giant said in a statement. Nationwide, South Korea generates about 6,000 tonnes a year, about 70% of which is landfilled or incinerated, according to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment.

Banners used for elections, events and advertising are typically discarded after a short period. While some have been upcycled into products such as bags, SK Chemicals said these applications generally do not provide a route for repeated recycling.

Under the new system, MOA and Daehan Media will collect waste banners in the Gyeongsang region, Upcloth will collect material in Honam and Seogwipo City will oversee collection in Jeju.

The collected material will be sent to MOA for pre-processing before being chemically recycled using SK Chemicals’ PET depolymerisation technology. The process breaks down polyester waste into chemical feedstock that can be repolymerised into material for new banner fabric.

Daehan Media will manufacture the chemically recycled banner fabric and distribute it through its nationwide sales network. Seogwipo City will work on the institutional framework needed to establish a local closed loop within the region.

The project builds on SK Chemicals’ efforts to expand the range of difficult-to-recycle polyester waste that can be processed using depolymerisation. The company has previously demonstrated closed-loop recycling of polyester airbags from end-of-life vehicles. It is also building a pilot facility in Ulsan to produce recycled bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (r-BHET) from low-quality waste including fibres, films and automotive components.

SK Chemicals also operates PET depolymerisation capacity in Shantou, China, with the resulting material used to produce chemically recycled PET at its polymerisation facility in Ulsan.

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