LOTTE Chemical holds performance-sharing event for the 4th cohort of ‘Project LOOP Social’

■ On the 16th, at LOTTE Hotel World in Jamsil, LOTTE Chemical held a performance-sharing event and awards ceremony for six companies from the 4th cohort of ‘Project LOOP Social,’ a venture support program aimed at building a circular economy.
■ Based on a comprehensive review of sustainability, contribution to resource circulation, and scalability, ‘Foresys’ and ‘TextileRe’ were selected as outstanding companies.
■ Young-Jun Lee, CEO of LOTTE Chemical: “The passion and execution of the 4th-cohort participants have made meaningful progress in expanding the resource-circulation ecosystem”… “We hope all participating companies will continue to play an important role in spreading the circular economy ecosystem.”

LOTTE Chemical announced on the 17th that it held a performance-sharing event for the 4th cohort of ‘Project LOOP Social,’ a venture support program for building a circular economy, in the afternoon of the 16th at LOTTE Hotel World in Jamsil.

The event was attended by Young-Jun Lee, CEO of LOTTE Chemical, along with representatives from Impact Square, LOTTE Ventures, and TBT Partners. To ensure fair evaluation of results, pre-registered applicants, venture investors, and other general participants were also invited.

Held under the theme ‘Project LOOP 2025: Driving Green Transformation,’ the event shared the achievements of six social ventures from the 4th cohort, introduced each company and its technologies through exhibition booths, and featured networking sessions and an awards ceremony for outstanding companies. ‘Project LOOP 2025: Driving Green Transformation.’

Among the participating companies, Aetech improved both efficiency and quality in waste-plastic sorting by integrating AI and robotics. By utilizing on-site data-based AI vision and precision robotic control, the company supports factory automation and has established an integrated solution system.

Found Objet addressed the lack of transparency and inconsistent quality standards in recycled-plastic trading by launching Sojemoa, a data-driven platform that digitalizes material distribution, verification, and proposals.

Repla overcame the limitations of physical sorting by leveraging microorganism technology that selectively decomposes specific plastic materials, thereby increasing the purity of single materials extracted from multi-material plastics.

Foresys provides end-to-end solutions covering the entire cycle from marine waste collection and pre-treatment to resource recovery. The company converts fiber-type waste plastics into high-quality recycled raw materials and develops eco-friendly products by integrating engineering capabilities.

TextileRe realizes a circular structure by selectively separating single materials from mixed waste textiles using polymer-targeted extraction technology and recycling those materials into apparel and fashion products.

Lastly, AkronEco achieved high-efficiency resource recovery of waste plastics through continuous pyrolysis technology based on ultrasonic and electric heating, maximizing both recycling efficiency and economic feasibility by securing high-content naphtha.

Among the six participating companies, based on a comprehensive evaluation of sustainability, contribution to resource circulation, and scalability, Foresys was selected as an outstanding company and received the Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment Award along with a prize of KRW 20 million. TextileRe received the LOTTE Chemical CEO Award and a prize of KRW 10 million.

Young-Jun Lee, CEO of LOTTE Chemical stated, “The passion and execution of the 4th-cohort participants have made meaningful progress in expanding the resource-circulation ecosystem.” “We hope all participating companies will continue to play an important role in spreading the circular economy ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, ‘Project LOOP Social’ is part of LOTTE Chemical’s plastic circular-economy initiative, ‘Project LOOP,’ and focuses on discovering and nurturing startups related to waste-plastic recycling to expand the resource-circulation process. LOTTE Chemical first launched a pilot ‘Project LOOP Social’ program in 2020 with eight social venture companies and has since supported a total of 25 companies, including those from the 1st through 4th official cohorts.