Dow and Lotte Chilsung Co. have launched a new collation shrink film (CSF) for bottled water that uses material made with post-consumer recycled (PCR) resin. The CSF, containing 20 percent PCR content, is being used as secondary packaging for Lotte’s “Icis 8.0 Eco” bottled water. “Icis 8.0 Eco” by Lotte was recognised by Korea’s Ministry of Environment for being a “Sustainable Good Package” and by the Korea Institute of Design Promotion for “Good Design” in 2020. The bottle has no additional plastic labels, as Lotte’s brand name is extruded as part of its design.
Mr. BH Han, professional researcher for Packaging & Design at Lotte R&D Center said, “Lotte’s ambitious strategy to reduce our use of plastic is being enabled by materials science partners like Dow, who are helping us to reach our sustainability goals. Dow’s PCR collation shrink film helps us to further reduce our plastic use and improves the sustainability profile of our beverage products.”
Lotte is the latest major brand in Asia Pacific adopting Dow’s CSF containing PCR. In partnership with recycling companies, Dow takes plastic waste and transforms it into PCR resins, which is incorporated into the core layer of CSF. This process ensures that the resultant PCR CSF film performs comparably to conventional options made with only virgin resins. The inclusion of recycled content in secondary packaging enables Lotte to significantly reduce carbon emissions and ecological footprint in their value chains, while giving a new life to used plastics that would otherwise have gone to waste.
Bambang Candra, Asia Pacific commercial vice president for Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics, said, “We see momentum gathering as Asia Pacific consumer brands continue to adopt PCR or recyclable packaging options offered by Dow. This pushes the change we are trying to drive further down the value chain towards consumer behaviour and actions, while supporting waste collection and recycling infrastructure.”
Dow has set ambitious sustainability targets to enable 1 million tonnes of plastic to be collected, reused, or recycled through its direct actions and partnerships by 2030, and for 100 percent of what Dow sells into packaging applications to be reusable or recyclable by 2035.
Post-consumer recycled resins are part of Dow’s portfolio of circularity solutions. Working with customers and value chain partners, Dow has introduced ways to extract the full value of plastic and help reduce the overall environmental impact of packaging and plastics, from accelerating the scaling of advanced recycling, to advancing bio-based renewable feedstocks, helping consumer brands design their packaging to be fully recyclable while also extending shelf life, and finding new ways to give hard-to-recycled plastics a second life.