South Korea's largest convenience store brand, CU, has adopted PLA for its lunch boxes, replacing PP entirely within the year
On October 14th, South Korea's BGF Retail announced that its convenience store brand, CU, will completely switch from PP (polypropylene) to PLA (polylactic acid), an environmentally friendly and biodegradable material, to strengthen its ESG management.
PLA is a bioplastic made from plant-based materials such as corn and sugarcane. Its production process reduces carbon emissions by up to 50% compared to PP. BGF Retail stated that if the company uses approximately 1,000 tons of PLA annually, it will save approximately 770 tons of carbon emissions.
Furthermore, unlike PP, which does not decompose naturally and contributes to the microplastic problem, PLA is an environmentally friendly material that can be naturally decomposed by microorganisms under certain temperature and humidity conditions, thereby reducing environmental waste.
CU has already replaced approximately 90% of its lunch box containers with PLA and plans to expand the use to all lunch boxes within the year.
CU, which sells over 30 million bento boxes annually, is the first in the convenience store industry to convert all its bento containers to biodegradable materials, demonstrating its commitment to working with customers to implement sustainable environmental policies.
CU is also simultaneously promoting initiatives to reduce unnecessary disposable items. Starting on the 27th of this month, chopsticks will be provided with bento boxes only upon request, ensuring customer convenience while reducing disposable item consumption.
Furthermore, the payment barcode sticker on the outside of the bento will now be printed directly on the wrapping. This move reduces the amount of stickers used and improves customer visibility of the bento contents.
Noh Su-min, Managing Director of BGF Retail's convenience food team, said: "The use of PLA material in the bento boxes is not just a simple material replacement, but also a transformation for CU to strengthen its environmental responsibility in the bento manufacturing process. Going forward, CU will continue to uphold the environmental slogan 'Be Green Friends', lead the development of healthier products, and practice environmentally friendly consumption with customers."
In addition, as an important initiative in ESG management, CU is actively promoting the following environmental practices: launching cup noodle products using PHA coating technology; completely replacing paper cup lids and kraft paper cups for get coffee; fully introducing three types of label-free mineral water; and using environmentally friendly private-label snack packaging.
