Korean bottled water brands turn to biodegradable packaging

(Cleanwrap)

As the bottled water industry races to reduce plastic waste, Korean beverage companies are introducing eco-friendly containers that maintain the convenience of bottled water while offsetting the downsides of plastic. The goal is to make bottles that decompose easily and disappear faster.

Plastic used in bottled water is one of the most persistent types of waste. According to a United Nations report, as the bottled water market rapidly expands, about 600 billion plastic containers are produced each year as of 2021, with 85 percent of them ending up in landfills.

Tetra Pak South Korea, a leading pre-processing and packaging solutions company, announced last Friday that it has partnered with Swedish premium electric vehicle brand Polestar Korea to launch “Polestar Water,” a paper-packaged bottled water.

The new bottled water will be produced by iN Nature Dream’s “Gipeunmul,” which uses Tetra Pak’s paper-based packaging. Based on Gipeunmul, Polestar Water minimizes label printing and removes unnecessary decorations. The product will be available at Polestar stores nationwide, as well as at test drive events and brand promotions starting next month.

At the “Fire Baseball” live game held earlier this month at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, bottled water was distributed in environmentally friendly containers as well.

The event featured “Re:lief,” a water brand launched by Cleanwrap, which uses 100 percent sugarcane-derived PLA for its packaging. PLA is a biodegradable material that can be composted or converted to biogas and is emerging as an eco-friendly alternative to petroleum-based plastics.

Sugarcane-based eco-containers are gaining traction across the food industry. Last month, Oriental Brewery donated 45,000 bottles of “OB Water,” packaged in sugarcane-based containers, to the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association.

Although replacing traditional plastic with alternative materials slightly increases production costs, a significant portion of consumers in their 20s and 30s say they are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. According to a report by the Korea Environment Institute, Korean consumers are willing to pay an additional 896 won ($0.61) for carbon-reduced certified water and 1,068 won for microplastic-free bottled water.

Some companies are also reducing carbon emissions by cutting container weight while continuing to use plastic. Jeju Samdasoo, Korea’s leading bottled water brand, has reduced the average weight of its bottles by 12 percent while increasing compression strength by 15 percent, cutting annual plastic use by about 3,400 tons.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s bottled water brand “ICIS” also introduced Korea’s first ultra-light bottle weighing less than 10 grams last year. Lotte Chilsung was the first in the country to use 100 percent mechanically recycled PET (MR-PET) for its Chilsung Cider.