SK chemicals and Huvis collaborate to produce Korea’s first-ever chemically recycled polyester yarns.

SK chemicals and Huvis announced on the 28th that the two companies will bring together their respective long-standing polyester and yarn manufacturing prowess to market ECOEVER CR, a chemically-recycled, high-quality polyester yarn brand, in Q3 of this year. SK chemicals is expected to produce and supply chemically recycled PET (CR PET) which will be used by Huvis in manufacturing chemically recycled yarn products.

As the whole world endeavors to reduce environmental pollution attributable to plastic materials, global big-name brands are taking note of ecological trends and launching more and more eco-friendly products made of recycled plastic and clothing wastes. These green textile trends have recently made their way into major product lineups of chemical fiber producers in the wake of the rise of ESG management.

 ”Chemical recycling” is a technology that decomposes plastic and clothing wastes back into raw materials for polymer plastics. Chemically recycled materials contain fewer fine impurities than physically recycled materials, eliminating yarn breakage during production and enabling more consistency in dyeing performance to produce higher-quality yarns.

Huvis is expected to be supplied with chemically recycled PET (CR PET) by SK chemicals to produce Korea’s first-ever chemically recycled polyester yarn, ECOEVER CR. With an in-house production facility for chips recycled from PET bottle waste in its Jeonju factory, Huvis is producing the recycled yarn, ECOEVER, from a seamless production process from raw material to yarn. When ECOEVER CR is marketed, Huvis will be able to expand the recycled yarn lineup to include ECOEVER CR using chemically recycled raw materials and ECOEVER using recycled PET material (PCR), securing access to a stable raw material supply network required for producing recycled yarns.

Director Kim, Bong-seop of the Yarn Business Division at Huvis said, “More and more consumers are growing aware of environmental values in their consumption,” and added, “The partnership with SK chemicals will enable us to not just use more of recycled yarns but also develop recycled biodegradable yarns produced from recycled materials coupled with Huvis’ proprietary biodegradable copolymerization technology in a bid to promote a ‘resource circular economy’ and thereby render our society more sustainable.

SK chemicals will expand its recycled product portfolio from copolyester to PET. The company will market and supply SKYPET CR, a chemically recycled PET brand, next to the chemically recycled copolyester ECOTRIA CR. To that end, SK chemicals acquired equities in a plastic waste (PET) recycling business in China in May to secure exclusive distribution rights for chemically recycled raw materials and chemically recycled PET products in the Korean market.

Manager Jeon, Jae-joon of the New Business Development Office at SK chemicals commented, “As people are paying increasingly more attention to plastic waste, the eco-friendliness of base material is becoming a key factor affecting consumers’ purchase decisions,” and added, “We will spur our CR PET business, starting from the eco-friendly textile/clothing industry targeted by the chemical fiber industry.”


▲Photo: ECOEVER CR Yarn of Huvis