LG Chem partners with startup for ecological efforts

By Kim Yoo-chul

LG Chem, the country's top chemical company, said Tuesday it has partnered with a local startup in an effort to strengthen its environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives.

The partnership with Innerbottle is calling for LG Chem, also a parent company of LG Energy Solution, to possibly establish a “plastic eco-platform” to enable the complete recycling of plastic cosmetic containers, according to LG Chem in a press release.

LG Chem said it is planning to implement the “platform” for cosmetic containers by the first half of this year before widening the applicable areas such as food and medicine containers.

Innerbottle is regarded as one of the country's leading startups, with its core business focusing on the production of eco-friendly packaging. Innerbottle procures plastic materials from LG Chem for the manufacture of cosmetic containers. “Once the collection of these containers is done, then the two companies will recycle with them. Because Innerbottle only manufactures transparent plastic bottles, materials of which could only be stored in silicon pouches inside bottles, you don't need to wash them off,” the statement said.

ESG is everywhere and LG Chem is hoping the partnership could lay the ground to achieve an “unprecedented” ESG business model that could cover the entire eco-cycle of plastic production, collection after use and even recycling.

“LG Chem will strengthen efforts to solidify our core petrochemical business portfolios that could co-exist with the environment,” Hur Sung-woo, executive vice president of the company's global business division, was quoted as saying in the release.