Lotte Chilsung to reduce plastic usage by 20% by 2030

South Korea’s Lotte Chilsung Beverage announced on Thursday that it plans to reduce plastic usage by 20% by 2030 by decreasing the weight of product containers and increasing the proportion of recycled materials.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage released a 2030 Plastic Reduction Roadmap to achieve this goal. The roadmap aims to practice environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management through recycling.

The main objective is to reduce the use of new plastic made from petroleum-based raw materials by 20% compared to last year by 2030.

To achieve this, the company will change the shape of plastic containers and make caps smaller to reduce weight. The proportion of recycled materials used will be increased to 30% by 2030.

The company will increase the recycling rate using physical recycling, which involves sorting, washing, drying, and melting recyclable waste plastic, and chemical recycling, which chemically decomposes waste plastic into pure raw materials for reuse.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s bottled water Icis has seen a reduction in the weight of its 500 ml container by 47.3%, from 22 grams at its launch in 1997 to 11.6 grams today.

Last year, the company also reduced the weight of PET bottles for 14 products, including Oneul Cha and Let's Be Grande, from 28 grams to 24 grams, a reduction of about 14%.

Write to Sul-Li Jun at sljun@hankyung.com