Pulmuone Announces to Expand Eco-friendly Packaging on World Environment Day

◦ Pulmuone adopts Eco-friendly packaging to Tofu, Water, Greenjuice, Noodle category products and plans to include all products by 2022

◦ Pulmuone aims to reduce plastic use by 500 t, CO2 emission by 900 t and increase recyclable packaging use to 400 m units by 2022

◦ Pulmuone to launch Reduce, Recycle, Remove (3R) Initiative and put eco-labels on its products

- Online and offline campaigns will be held to present eco-friendly bags and tumblers and drive consumer participation

SEOUL – May 20^th, 2019 – Pulmuone, a global fresh food company headquartered in Seoul, Republic of Korea, announced on May 20th that the company will contribute to individual and family health and environmental sustainability on earth by adopting its environmental thinking packaging to all products to reduce plastic use and CO2 emissions. To minimize the environmental impact caused by plastic use, Pulmuone is giving top priority to sustainability by developing packaging designs that reduce the overall amount of plastic, refraining from toxic chemicals and using 100% recyclable materials.

▲ Pulmuone staff introducing eco-friendly packaging products 

Pulmuone’s strategic plan is to prevent or minimize environmental impact on ecosystem throughout all of its business value chains, including ingredient management, manufacturing, selling, packaging and disposal. As packaging and disposal are considered the most harmful of all the chains, Pulmuone begins applying environmental thinking packaging to its major products including water, tofu, natto, noodle and juice, and expand it to all products by 2022. The plan will be executed based on the following 3R Action Plans:

- Reduce: Pulmuone, which have reduced 242 tons of plastic use in packing as of May 2019, aims to reduce 500 tons of plastic use in packaging in total by 2022. To add to its 11.1g plastic bottle for 500 ml water launched in 2018, the lightest among its rivals, the company will sell its water products in a light-weight 2L plastic bottle, which is 3g lighter that its previous version, from June 2019. For its 3 soft tofu products and all 22 lineups of natto products, Pulmuone plans to mix recyclable calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in their packaging to reduce plastic use by 30 percent. For its newly-developed I’m Real Solution, 30 percent of the packaging materials contains bio-plastics derived from renewable biomass sources.

- Recycle: Pulmuone plans to increase the number of recyclable packaging units from 1.34 million in 2019 to 400 million by 2022. For all bottles of water, juice and dressing, Pulmuone will put on product labels that are easily removed by washing in a recycling plant. Already, all bottles of Pulmuone Juice are affixed with product labels with perforation line to help consumers properly separate and recycle the plastic waste.

- Remove: By removing chemical substances from its packaging, Pulmuone aims to achieve a carbon reduction of 900 tons, which is equivalent to what 257 thousand pine trees take in over a year, by 2022. For this plan, Pulmuone started using water-based adhesives and inks for the packaging materials of all tofu products and 8 lineups of non-fried noodles and will expand it to entire lineups.

To help consumers identify greener and more eco-friendly products, Pulmuone is using eco-labels with a leaf emblem on its products in environmental thinking packaging. The labels provide eco-information on the packing, including reduced plastic amount, adhesive content, bio-plastic use, and water-based ink use.

Online and offline campaigns will be held to encourage consumers’ participation. Pulmuone’s message for eco-packaging will be delivered to consumers through online commercials, website and social media. Through offline events, 1,000 eco-friendly bags will be presented to social media influencers and consumers. Corporate-wise, Pulmuone designated 1th day of every month as “a Disposable-Free Day” to help reduce the amount of waste.

“Ahead of the World Environment Day on June 5, Pulmuone announced its corporate plan for adopting environmental thinking packaging, which aims to minimize environmental impact by reducing plastic use and enable convenient recycling for consumers,“ said Eun-gi Hong, Head of Environment Safety Health Team of Pulmuone Corporation. “As a LOHAS company that respects life and loves its neighbors, Pulmuone will keep making multi-faceted efforts in delivering its value on sustainable life to consumers.”

Pulmuone’s eco-packaging is part of its efforts to execute the Eco-Friendly strategy, which is one of Pulmuone’s 7 LOHAS strategies established in May 2018 with an aim to become a global LOHAS company. The strategies are categorized by 2 main keywords: Nutrition Balance, Low Glycemic Load, Meat Alternative and Animal Welfare are included in “Wholesome Food,” Health & Hygiene and Wellness in “Healthy Living,” and Eco-Friendly, mentioned above, in both keywords.