SK chemicals announced on May 26 that its copolyester ECOTRIA CLARO and its PET-based SKYPET product family have been recognized by RecyClass, a European recycling assessment body, as recyclable within the PET recycling stream.
RecyClass is a non-profit, cross-industry initiative established to advance the circular economy for plastics in Europe. It operates a structured framework to evaluate and certify the recyclability of plastic materials in accordance with evaluation protocols and design guidelines.
In line with the RecyClass framework, SK chemicals obtained the Technology Approval (TA), an assessment that verifies whether a material, when introduced into actual recycling processes, can be reliably used as recycled feedstock without disrupting existing operations. The TA serves as a key benchmark for assessing a material's compatibility with the recycling process when used as feedstock for post-consumer recycled plastics. Materials whose compatibility with recycling processes has not been verified can cause process disruptions or quality degradation, potentially impeding actual recycling.
With this outcome, SK chemicals has secured authoritative verification of the value of its diverse polyester portfolio as recycling feedstock, spanning from copolyesters to PET and from recycled to virgin materials. While recycled materials are commonly evaluated by whether and to what extent they contain recycled feedstock reprocessed from waste plastics, the industry also regards the question of whether discarded waste plastics can themselves be processed back into feedstock as an equally critical measure of recyclability.
