Partners with Korail and TerraCycle Korea
![From left, Lee Chang-yeol, E-mart's ESG officer; Park Yong-jeong, head of Korail's carbon neutrality promotion team; and Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, pose for a photo at the Upcycling Bench Project MOU signing ceremony held at Yongsan Station on Tuesday. [E-mart]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/23/news-p.v1.20260623.ec176896c9204ead93db98e94f7b0f55_P1.jpg)
E-mart announced Tuesday it has signed an "Upcycling Bench Project MOU" with Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) and TerraCycle Korea to build a resource-circulation system for waste plastic.
The project will repurpose waste plastic collected through E-mart's "Gapeuljiu" campaign — which calls on shoppers to bring in used plastic to help protect the ocean — into everyday lifestyle infrastructure.
About 1.3 tons of the collected plastic will be made into upcycled benches, with the first installation planned at KTX Yongsan Station. The partners plan to gradually expand the rollout to additional locations.
Lee Chang-yeol, E-mart's ESG officer, said the company would "continue to extend the value of resource circulation into everyday spaces and put ESG (environmental, social and governance) management into sustained practice."
andy@heraldcorp.com
