SK Geo Centric Breaks Ground on Ulsan Recycling Facility

SK Geo Centric held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 15, for the Ulsan Advanced Recycling Cluster (ARC), a waste recycling complex. The site represents a total projected investment of KRW 1.8 trillion ($1.4 billion USD) and will cover 60 acres. The Ulsan ARC is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025.

SK Geo Centric is partnering with Plastic Energy, Purecycle Technologies and Loop Industries to apply three recycling technologies in one site: pyrolysis, polypropylene (PP) extraction and depolymerization.

“The ability to create a closed-loop recycling system for apparel companies using the Infinite Loop technology will play a significant role in our Asian JV with SKGC as we work to reinvent the supply chain for textile manufacturing in Asia,” says Daniel Solomita, Loop Industries CEO.

When the facility is operational, it is expected to have an annual capacity to reprocess 320,000 metric tons (over 700 million lbs) of plastic waste. Operating at full capacity, this will enable processing 9% of waste plastic incinerated or buried each year in South Korea and 60% of the nation’s annual consumption of PET water bottles and plastic cups.

Ceremonial groundbreaking at Ulsan site. Photo Credit: SK Geo Centric

SK Geo Centric’s Ulsan ARC project is designed to serve as a model for future projects, with discussions already underway for building additional plants in France, Belgium and China. The Ulsan site will be able to create raw plastic materials from a wide range of discarded plastics, such as takeout containers, bottles, automotive parts and certain plastic-based textiles. It will be able to turn some plastics, such as vinyl and other composite plastics, into chemical materials that can be used as a substitute for crude oil.

“We will lead the renaissance of Korea’s petrochemical industry via the Ulsan ARC, which has core technology for plastic recycling. We will apply the latest technologies to reinvent plastics, make waste plastic a new resource and work to revitalize the petrochemical business,” says Kyung-soo Na, CEO at SK Geo Centric. Na adds that SK Geo Centric has already begun preselling recycled material to overseas companies, including Amcor.