S Korea’s Hanwha, SPC to develop biodegradable plastic material

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–South Korean firms Hanwha Compound and SPC Pack plan to jointly develop eco-friendly biodegradable plastic materials based on poly lactic acid (PLA).

The end-product should easily decompose in soil and will be used as packaging material for SPC’s products, Hanwha Compound said on Friday.

Financial details of the project were not disclosed.

SPC Pack is a packaging material manufacturing subsidiary of SPC Group – a Korean conglomerate engaged in food and confectionery business, owning some 40 brands, including Paris Baguette and Baskin Robbins Korea.

Since the start of the year, Hanwha Compound and SPC have been conducting research based on PLA, a biodgradable plastic made by fermenting starch extracted from corn and sugar cane, it said.

“While maintaining the advantages of PLA, which has excellent processability and rapidly decomposes, Hanwha Compound’s blending technology was applied to compensate for the disadvantage of being easily broken compared to general plastics. In particular, the material developed this time decomposes within a few years in the soil,” Hanwha Compound said.

Hanwha Compound is a 100% subsidiary of Hanwha Solutions, which was formed in January 2020 with the merger of Hanwha Chemical, Hanwha Q CELLS, and Hanwha Advanced Materials.