Lotte declares green campaign for affiliates

Retail and travel giant Lotte said Wednesday it has prepared a new environment friendly campaign for all of its affiliates, under a five-year plan to reduce food waste, minimize packaging and reuse resources.

Lotte Holdings, and four of its business units -- food, retail, chemical/construction/manufacturing and tourism/service/finance -- will take part in the project.

Lotte has three main action plans: establishing a plastic recycling system; expanding the use of environment friendly materials for packaging of its goods; and reducing food waste.

To achieve the different tasks, the company will form a consultative body among related affiliates to come up with detailed plans.

The company said it would ultimately establish the “5Re” model promoting five actions -- reduce, replace, redesign, reuse and recycle -- for its corporate environmental responsibility.

All of its affiliates have also been assessed on their environment management capabilities for the scheme, the firm said.

The group aims to expand the use of recycled polyethylene terephthalate plastic, reproduced with technology from its chemical business unit, to 20 percent by 2025 for food packaging and in manufacturing clothes and shoes. The environment friendly packaging will be used for 50 percent of the products distributed by the retailer.

By 2025, the group aims to reduce food waste from its food-related businesses by 30 percent. To that end, the company said it will invest in different technologies for food items, to maintain freshness for a longer period and to reuse food scraps by turning them into fertilizers or animal feed.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)