Lotte Mart recently announced its plans to package their tomatoes in 100% recycled plastic containers.
Lotte Mart currently offers two of its tomato products, Sweetell Tomato and Sweettango Tomato, in containers made of recycled plastic. This makes Lotte Mart the first discount chain store in Korea to introduce such a sustainable packaging for foods.
"The change was made in response to the fact that tomatoes use the most plastic packaging among the fresh food items sold throughout the year", the retailer says.
The company has set its sights on expanding the use of recycled plastic containers to all 22 tomato products by the end of this year.
According to Lotte Mart, the recycled plastic containers are manufactured through chemical recycling technology, which uses chemical processes like depolymerization and pyrolysis to break down the polymer form of plastic into raw materials. This method has a significant advantage over mechanical recycling, which involves cutting plastic into flakes. The containers produced by chemical recycling are highly stable and can be recycled again, the discount chain explained.
Source: koreajoongangdaily.joins.com