{"id":43539,"date":"2020-06-08T03:01:34","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T01:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=43539"},"modified":"2021-09-16T12:02:31","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T10:02:31","slug":"s-korea-supermarket-giant-to-halve-its-single-use-plastic-packaging-by-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/press-release\/43539\/s-korea-supermarket-giant-to-halve-its-single-use-plastic-packaging-by-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"S. Korea supermarket giant to halve its single-use-plastic packaging by 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seoul, South Korea <\/strong>– Lotte Mart, one of the largest supermarket chains in South Korea, announced its plan today to cut its single-use plastic usage by 50% by 2025, making it the first supermarket chain in Asia to make such a commitment. This announcement comes as a part of Lotte Mart\u2019s ambitious plan that also aims to implement new eco-friendly packaging guidelines for its private brands and roll out new measures to achieve its goal of \u2018zero plastic bags\u2019. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cLotte Mart\u2019s announcement to cut down on plastic usage is a significant step forward. Other retailers in Korea should follow suit and use Lotte\u2019s plan as an example to disclose their plastic reduction targets. Also, Lotte Mart also has dozens of stores in Vietnam and Indonesia, and should apply the same ambitious plastic reduction targets across their global operations,\u201d said Yiseo Kim, Greenpeace Seoul Plastics Campaigner.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace Seoul welcomes Lotte Mart\u2019s announcement which is a great step forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis. Since 2019, Greenpeace Seoul has urged supermarket giants in South Korea, including Lotte Mart, to reduce their use of single-use plastics across the country.<\/p>\n\n

In 2019, Lotte Mart scored the lowest among companies ranked in Greenpeace Seoul\u2019s supermarket survey<\/a> with four Fs, revealing the  South Korean retailer\u2019s lack of effort to reduce its plastic footprint. In April, Greenpeace Seoul installed a large five-meter-tall trolley in front of Lotte Mart stores<\/a>, calling for the elimination of unnecessary plastic packaging and an immediate plan for plastic reduction.<\/p>\n\n

Over the past few years, Greenpeace has campaigned in the US, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to demand supermarkets to reduce unnecessary plastic packaging. As a result, in 2018, Sainsbury\u2019s declared a 50% reduction in plastic packaging by 2025<\/a> in the UK, and in 2019, the US supermarket Giant Eagle announced that it will eliminate single-use plastics by 2025<\/a>. Since there has been no such commitment in Asia so far, Lotte Mart\u2019s commitment is particularly noteworthy. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThis is a major milestone in the global campaign for a plastic-free future, and other supermarkets beyond Korea and Asia must follow Lotte Mart’s lead. We look forward to more details on Lotte Mart’s plastic reduction plan and urge the company to prioritize package-free and reusable systems,” said Kim.<\/p>\n\n

As detailed action plans were not presented during this announcement, Greenpeace Seoul calls for an effective implementation system to be established by Lotte Mart in the near future to carry out its commitments. <\/p>\n\n

ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Note:<\/p>\n\n

Photos available here<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Contacts:<\/p>\n\n

Seungmin Hong, Communication Officer, Greenpeace East Asia Seoul, +81 (0) 10 3507 3216,  sehong@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace International Press Desk: pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org, +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours)<\/p>\n\n

Follow @greenpeacepress on twitter for our latest international press releases<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lotte Mart, one of the largest supermarket chains in South Korea, announced its plan today to cut its single-use plastic usage by 50% by 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":43542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[67],"p4-page-type":[98],"class_list":["post-43539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-consumption","p4-page-type-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43539"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43570,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43539\/revisions\/43570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43539"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=43539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}