January 2023
KOREA

ESG Report

Written by Yu Pureum
Photos Courtesy of Plastic Ark

We are drowning in a sea of plastic waste. Many companies are making numerous attempts to recycle discarded plastics. Plastic Ark is one such company. The difference is that the eco-friendly movement of Plastic Ark is very trendy.

Eco-Friendly Products That Are Actually Cool

More individuals are becoming aware of the significance of environmental problems as they continue to arise. Situational knowledge that results in proactive environmental protection is another story, though.

The scenario for eco-friendly products is comparable. Although everyone accepts the importance and value of eco-friendly products, people do not always choose to purchase pricey, inconvenient or less appealing eco-friendly products. After all, it is a reality that many environmentally friendly products depend on consumers¡¯ good deeds to protect the environment.

Hence, Plastic Ark came to the conclusion that making a product worthwhile to own is more important than anything else. A product with both aesthetics and utility was eventually released after extensive research - the ¡°Dirty Pot¡± flower pot and the ¡°Poly Pop¡± phone case boasting trendy colors and colorful patterns. They also produced cultural content with their products, just like fashion brands because they were certain that if they converted the eco-friendly movement into a trendy culture, more people would join.

Marvelous Marbling

The outcome was a huge success. People went crazy over Plastic Ark for their vivid colors and trendy patterns that weren¡¯t present in other eco-friendly products. ¡°Dirty Pot¡± and ¡°Poly Pop¡± feature a marbling pattern that is hardly ever found in any eco-friendly product in the world.

It took three years to achieve this design utilizing waste plastic, which is a pattern that is only commonly seen in off-the-shelf products. This is due to limits in the ability of current technologies to implement marbling patterns.

Plastics can only be made in one color. Therefore, post-processing such as coating or printing is required to apply patterns or colors to plastics. Plastic post-processing has the drawback that it is challenging to recycle. After all, the plastic used for recycling is only a single-color plastic product.

To get around this, several techniques have emerged to make products using the unique color of plastic. The primary technique is to melt the plastic into a form of liquified resin, which is then held to create a pattern and hardened once more. With this technique a consistent pattern is hard to implement, and the final output is of poor quality.

Plastic Ark has recently modified the existing device to make up for this. To create a fixed pattern in the liquid resin, the plastic¡¯s melting temperature, pressure, and the cylinder that pushes the resin in mm and pressure units were repeatedly researched and experimented with. As a result, the current trendy and original design was realized.

Plastic Ark¡¯s Dirty Pot has garnered a great deal of attention due to its unique marbling pattern.
Plastic Ark¡¯s Poly Pop advertisement with a famous painting concept

Long Term, Meaningful Use

Plastic Ark is receiving standing point proposals from numerous stores. It is conceivable to aggressively produce goods and indiscriminately expand stores in order to maximize profit. However, Plastic Ark continues to run a capsule collection that simply produces and distributes the minimal amount of products required.

This is done to reduce unnecessary marketing efforts and to prevent needless consumption induced by lower prices caused by price competition brought on by indiscriminate expansion. This is in line with the philosophy of Plastic Ark, ¡°The eco-friendliest thing is to use a product for a long time in a meaningful way.¡±

Plastic Ark plans to establish an eco-friendly culture that naturally permeates all aspects of daily living. First of all, a new product, pet tableware, is soon to be released in February 2023. Additionally, a project has been planned to work with different artists to create art utilizing plastic waste.

Environmental problems will accelerate more rapidly in the future, but mandating the eco-friendly movement cannot be a fundamental solution. The only fuel for a movement that is sustainable is voluntary engagement. This is why the flow of Plastic Ark-created ¡°Hip and fun eco-friendly movement¡± is more appreciated.

Plastic Ark believes that trendy products are the key to consumers voluntarily following eco-friendly practices.

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