LG Chem, Hwaseong City and Sungji Lay the Institutional Groundwork
Establishing a system for the separate disposal, collection and recycling of PVC waste wallpaper
LG Chem has signed a business agreement with Hwaseong City and Sungji to establish a system for the separate disposal, collection and recycling of PVC waste wallpaper, agreeing to actively cooperate in laying the institutional groundwork for building a sustainable resource-recirculation society.
This partnership is expected to open a new path for recycling PVC waste wallpaper, which is normally classified and discarded as general waste. Silk wallpaper, currently used for papering in most households, is a valuable resource that can be recycled into recycled raw materials, but due to the absence of a collection system and its disposal mixed together with other materials, it is all being incinerated.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hwaseong City will promote citizen outreach, education and policy development to encourage and expand the proper separate disposal of PVC waste wallpaper, and will collect waste wallpaper generated within apartment complexes, store it at the Hwaseong City resource recovery facility (Goju-ri, Paltan-myeon) and then hand it over to the recycling company Sungji.
Drawing on more than 20 years of recycling experience and technology, Sungji will separate the paper layer and the PVC coating layer of the collected waste wallpaper and remove various foreign substances, using the paper powder for paper molds and as an auxiliary material for egg cartons, while providing the PVC coating layer to LG Chem.
LG Chem plans to receive the PVC coating layer and, by applying its own property-enhancement formulation and compounding technology, produce high-purity PCR PVC[2] and apply it to a diverse range of product lines such as flooring, thereby accelerating the expansion of the recycling market and its entry into new markets.
This pilot project will first be carried out at around eight apartment complexes that expressed a willingness to participate in a demand survey conducted among apartment complexes in Hwaseong City, and there are plans to review expanding its application across all of Hwaseong City depending on how the pilot project progresses.
Hwang Young-shin, head of LG Chem's PVC/Plasticizer Business Division, said, "Starting with this pilot project together with the local government, we will continue to expand eco-friendly technologies and application fields that enable the recirculation of waste plastic resources that are incinerated or discarded in everyday life."