South Korea’s leading petrochemicals manufacturer, SK Global Chemical has rebranded itself as SK Geo Centric with effect from September 01, 2021, in an attempt to highlight its strategical inclination towards plastic recycling and production of eco-friendly chemicals.

The company revealed its vision of developing into the world’s leading oilfield corporation backed by the establishment to transform plastic back into oil. For implementing its goals, the company has strategized to revamp its existing businesses and become a completely green petrochemical manufacturer in the future.

SK Geo Centric has planned an investment of around USD 4.3 billion in the domestic and international markets towards its plastic recycling facilities and expansion of its green materials segment. The company’s initial plan constitutes the commissioning of a waste plastic processing unit with a capacity of 900 KTPA, that matches the company’s annual plastic production volume. The proposed timeline for the initial establishment ends in late 2025, after which the company has targeted to enhance its plastic processing capacity to 2500 KTPA by 2027.

In the direction of its activities in the eco-friendly materials production segment, the company will be focussing on the expansion of its existing 500 KTPA capacity plant to 1900 KTPA capacity by 2025. 

The company has further indicated its plans to indulge in the development of a chain of recycling facilities having the capability to process polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate, with the support of the South Korean government, and local small /medium enterprises. With these ventures, the company anticipates generating USD 5.15 million EBIDTA.

Plastics are a group of materials that, in general, include Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Polyvinyl Chloride, High-Density Polyethylene, and low-Density Polyethylene. Accumulation of plastic wastes in landfills and water bodies is one of the most severe environmental problems of the present time. Plastics are non-biodegradable in nature and produce hazardous gases if incinerated.

As per ChemAnalyst, recycling of plastic has become a global agenda with strong support from governments and environmentalists which has favoured the increasing growth in in plastic recycling market. The plastic recycling market size is expected to value over USD 30 billion by 2027 with a year-on-year CAGR of around 6%. Hence, plastic recycling technologies have tremendous opportunities for market players across the globe.