Lotte Chemical launches the 4th Project LOOP Social…

■ On the 15th, the agreement ceremony for the 4th Project LOOP Social was held at Lotte World Tower in Jamsil…Six promising social ventures were selected, focusing on plastic resource collection, sorting, and raw material conversion.
■ Since 2020, Lotte Chemical’s Project LOOP Social has provided selected social ventures with funding, expert mentoring, and business opportunities to support their growth.
■ Lee Young-jun, CEO of Lotte Chemical, stated, “We will strengthen our collaboration with social ventures and continue to expand the circular resource ecosystem,” adding, “We are committed to supporting the selected companies in achieving meaningful outcomes.”

Lotte Chemical announced that it held the agreement ceremony for the 4th cohort of its startup support program “Project LOOP Social” on July 15 at Lotte World Tower in Jamsil.

Project LOOP Social is part of Lotte Chemical’s “Project LOOP” campaign, which aims to establish a circular plastic economy. The program focuses on identifying and nurturing startups involved in plastic recycling, with the aim to expand the circular resource process. Lotte Chemical launched the pilot of Project LOOP Social in 2020 with eight social ventures and has since supported a total of 19 companies across three formal cohorts.

For the 4th cohort, Lotte Chemical, in partnership with program operator Impact Square, selected six promising social ventures specializing in plastic waste collection, sorting, and conversion into raw materials. These companies will receive business execution funding, expert mentoring, acceleration programs, online training, and sales channel development support.

The six selected startups are aetech, a plastic waste sorting company using AI-based robotic solutions; Found Objet, a distribution platform specializing in recycled plastics; Repla, a company with original plastic-degrading technology based on microorganisms; Foresys, focused on marine plastic recycling; Textilely, which recycles textile waste using targeted polymer extraction methods; and Akroneco, which utilizes continuous ultrasonic pyrolysis to recycle plastic waste.

Lee Young-jun, CEO of Lotte Chemical, stated, “Through Project LOOP Social, we will strengthen our cooperation with social ventures and expand the circular resource ecosystem. We are committed to supporting the selected companies in achieving meaningful outcomes and fulfilling our social responsibility.”

Lotte Chemical continues to collaborate with past participants of the program. For example, with Kokkiri gongjang, a standout from the first cohort, the company has worked on the LOOP Cluster project in Busan, Ulsan, and Incheon. Another partner, Lowlit Collective, which creates furniture and interior products using recycled plastic, collaborated with Lotte Museum to produce merchandise featuring artworks from the museum’s exhibiting artists.

Beyond Project LOOP Social, Project LOOP has expanded into multiple initiatives, which are Project LOOP Cluster for partnership with local governments and public/private facilities for recycled material sourcing; Project LOOP LOTTE for promoting a recycling culture and increasing material usage within the Lotte Group; and Project LOOP Alliance for fostering cross-industry collaboration to build a broader recycling ecosystem.