Lotte Chilsung cut plastic use by 3,000 tons, greenhouse gas emissions by 6,400 tons last year

Lotte Chilsung Beverage said Tuesday it had cut plastic emissions by about 3,000 tons through packaging technology innovation.

The company established its "2030 Plastic Reduction Roadmap" in 2024, setting a target to reduce virgin plastic use by 20 percent from 2023 levels by 2030. Its core strategies are lightweighting plastic containers and expanding the use of recycled materials.

Lotte Chilsung introduced the ET-CAP (Extra Tall Cap) system, which lowers the bottle neck height on all water products from 18.5 millimeters to 12.8 millimeters, cutting about 810 tons of plastic use last year. The company also reduced the weight of PET bottle preforms by up to 5 grams per container, saving about 1,650 tons, and applied aseptic PET to large-format packages for products including Ipro Bujokhaltae and Gatorade, trimming another roughly 240 tons.

The company is also accelerating its push into recycled materials. In October last year, it became the first in South Korea to launch a 500-milliliter Chilsung Cider PET bottle made entirely from mechanically recycled PET (MR-PET). The product cut about 250 tons of plastic emissions within roughly two months of its launch.

Starting in April, Lotte Chilsung extended 100% recycled-material packaging to key products including Icis 500-milliliter and Pepsi Zero Sugar Lime 500-milliliter bottles. In May and June, it converted the Icis 2-liter and Chilsung Cider 300-milliliter PET bottles to recycled materials as well. The company also applied 100% recycled PET bottles to its Saero 640-milliliter product, which is not subject to legal recycling mandates. Lotte Chilsung plans to produce about 300 million 100% recycled-material PET bottles, pushing its recycled material adoption rate to 10 percent within the third quarter and to a cumulative 15 percent by year-end.

Greenhouse gas reduction efforts are also ongoing. Since declaring carbon neutrality by 2040 in 2021, the company has cut about 6,400 tons of greenhouse gas emissions last year through renewable energy expansion, fuel switching and electric vehicle adoption. Total greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 fell about 7 percent from the previous year and about 17 percent from 2018 levels.

A biogas power generation facility at the Gunsan factory uses distillery byproducts and cut about 5,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions last year. Solar power generation operates at five sites nationwide, including the Chungju No. 2 factory, reducing emissions by about 460 tons last year. Through a "carbon-neutral green partnership" with Daejeon Metropolitan City and CNCITY Energy, the company switched from LNG fossil fuel to landfill gas, a form of renewable energy, cutting about 380 tons of greenhouse gas. The cumulative introduction of about 630 electric vehicles reduced emissions by a further roughly 550 tons last year.

"We will continue to integrate sincere ESG management into our business strategy to benefit the environment and society," a Lotte Chilsung Beverage official said.