Hyundai Department Store Boosts Recycling in Korea, Saving 53,000 Trees

Hyundai Department Store said on the 3rd that since introducing eco-friendly shopping bags four years ago, it has recycled about 1,758 tons (t) of waste paper, effectively protecting 53,000 trees.

Hyundai Department Store in June 2022 became the first in the industry to introduce shopping bags made of 100% recycled paper containing waste paper at stores nationwide. Since then, through the end of May this year, it has produced a total of 32 million eco-friendly shopping bags.

The eco-friendly shopping bags are produced based on "Project 100," a resource-circulation system introduced by Hyundai Department Store. The department store collects waste paper such as delivery boxes and packaging containers, turns it into recycled paper, and then produces and uses it again as shopping bags.

Through Project 100, a total of 32 million eco-friendly shopping bags have been produced over about four years through last month. The company said this saved about 8,000 tons of timber. The shopping bags are not additionally processed with coating, so they can be recycled after use.

Hyundai Department Store is also expanding plastic resource-circulation efforts. Since June last year, it has been running the "Vinyl to Vinyl" project with HD Hyundai Oilbank to recycle waste plastic into new plastic bags.

Waste plastic generated at department stores and outlets is collected and thermally decomposed, then made into new plastic bags. Hyundai Department Store recently distributed 200,000 100-liter (ℓ) plastic bags produced through the project to 19 stores nationwide, including the Apgujeong main store.

A Hyundai Department Store official said, "We plan to continue expanding resource-circulation activities," adding, "Next year, we will also unveil a new eco-friendly shopping bag design that reflects the department store's brand identity."