Hyundai L&C announced that it has become the first company in Korea to obtain GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certification for its furniture film products, which use recycled PET as a raw material, from Control Union, an international eco-friendly certification body headquartered in the Netherlands.
Furniture film is a surface finishing material applied to the surface of furniture to enhance its aesthetic appeal. GRS certification is an international certification that verifies the traceability of recycled materials. Unlike most certifications, which conduct prescribed tests on finished products, GRS certification is difficult to obtain because the certification body conducts on-site inspections and evaluations of the entire production process—from the receipt of raw materials to production and shipment—as well as the manufacturer's social and environmental systems. The minimum standard for certification requires at least 20% recycled material content, and using the certification logo requires a content of at least 50%. Hyundai L&C used raw material containing over 70% recycled PET in its furniture film 'Glossia,' becoming the first company in Korea to obtain GRS certification for furniture film.
PET is an eco-friendly material well known to us as containers for bottled water, beverages, and food packaging. Lightweight and transparent, PET offers good thermal insulation and excellent elasticity, making it easy to restore and recycle. However, advanced technology is required to recycle it into products of the same high quality as new ones. Depending on the condition of the collected PET, processing products from material that is difficult to recycle—such as material mixed with impurities—makes it difficult to achieve uniform product color and can lead to quality deviations. In the process of turning collected PET into recyclable resin, Hyundai L&C secured top-quality resin through joint development with a partner company, and through its own proprietary technology development in manufacturing furniture film, it achieved patterns and colors on par with PVC and standard PET. In addition, unlike other domestic manufacturers that import recycled PET from overseas, Hyundai L&C contributes to improving domestic environmental issues by developing high-quality furniture film using 100% domestically generated recycled PET. Applying this product to both the kitchen and general furniture of a 32-pyeong apartment is equivalent to recycling approximately 1,300 500ml PET bottles, and when applied to annual production volume, this yields a recycling effect of approximately 97 million bottles.
A Hyundai L&C official said, “We are currently in sales discussions with major large European furniture companies regarding the recycled PET deco sheet developed this time, and we are also conducting sales activities with major domestic construction and furniture companies,” adding, “We plan to raise the recycled PET content, currently at around 70%, up to 100%, and we plan to continuously develop environmentally friendly products to lead this field.” 080-729-8272