Lotte Chemical has selected five social ventures that will link recycled materials from waste plastics to products. Lotte Chemical said on Thursday it held an agreement ceremony for the fifth round of its social venture incubation programme, Project LOOP Social, at its headquarters at Lotte World Tower in Jamsil on Oct. 29. The selected companies will receive support to expand their businesses into circular economy models.

Project LOOP Social is an activity under Lotte Chemical's plastic circular economy project campaign. It aims to broaden a resource-circulation process by discovering and fostering startups related to waste plastic recycling. Lotte Chemical began a pilot programme with eight social ventures in 2020. A total of 16 companies have since received support through the first to fourth formal rounds.

The fifth round selected social ventures with technology and know-how to implement recycled raw materials in actual products and services, rather than stopping at producing the materials. The chosen companies will be offered cooperation opportunities including business implementation funding, expert mentoring, accelerating programmes, online courses and help building sales channels. Support will focus on commercialising products using recycled raw materials and connecting them to markets.

Placycle has technology to chemically recycle waste polycarbonate, while Frag has a recycled-material goods brand and an NFC-based smart goods platform. Lowlit Collective designs and manufactures products from waste plastics using a rotational moulding method. Eomtech makes composite-material railway sleepers from industrial by-products including waste plastics. Reviation provides the full process from materials planning to delivery as an eco-friendly one-stop development company.

It also supports Project LOOP Cluster, which sources recycling raw materials through local governments and public and private facilities, and Project LOOP LOTTE, which spreads recycling culture within the Lotte Group and increases materials use. It also supports Project LOOP Alliance, an activity to broaden the recycling ecosystem across industries.

Lee Young-jun (이영준), chief executive, said, "Project LOOP Social 5 aims to go beyond simply producing recycled raw materials from waste plastics and to create practical circular economy business models through commercialisation using them and linking them with the market." He said, "Lotte Chemical will spare no support so that the selected companies can deliver results in this process."