South Korean chemicals and plastics group LG Chem (Seoul; www.lgchem.com) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with compatriot waste collector Netspa (Busan; http://netspa.co.kr) to establish a resource circulation system for recycling marine waste.

Reprocessed fishing nets and other once-discarded products, for example, could feed the pyrolysis oil plant that LG Chem is building at its domestic industrial park Dangjin, which is scheduled to begin operating in 2024.

LG Chem recently purchased shares in Mura Technology (London; www.muratechnology.com) and a license to use the company’s chemical recycling process (see Plasteurope.com of 24.01.2022).

Some 50,000 t of marine waste is estimated to be generated annually. Collecting the material can be difficult and costly, LG said. Such waste can be hard to treat and up to now has generally been incinerated or just left lying around.

The chemical company and Netspa said their collaboration would help protect the marine ecosystem, and using reprocessed material could also reduce carbon emissions.

Since setting the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, LG Chem said it has been investing in sustainability, including eco-friendly bioplastics. Among other things, it has financed a biomass-fed power plant joint venture and is starting to use carbon capture to produce plastics.

Kug Lae Noh, president of LG’s petrochemicals arm, said the Korean company plans to “further accelerate” the use of eco-friendly technologies and businesses for sustainable growth such as marine waste resource circulation.

In late 2020, LG agreed a long-term strategic pact with Finnish refiner Neste (Espoo; www.neste.com) to develop the global biopolymers market (see Plasteurope.com of 12.11.2020).