32 million eco-friendly bags produced, cutting timber use by over 8,000 tons

Hyundai Department Store's eco-friendly shopping bags [Hyundai Department Store]
Hyundai Department Store's eco-friendly shopping bags [Hyundai Department Store]

Hyundai Department Store announced Thursday that its eco-friendly shopping bags have saved the equivalent of 53,000 trees in the four years since their introduction.

The retailer launched the bags across all its stores in June 2022 through its independent resource-recycling initiative "Project 100," becoming the first in the industry to do so. By the end of May this year, it had produced a total of 32 million eco-friendly bags. Made entirely from 100-percent recycled paper, the bags have eliminated the need for roughly 8,000 tons of timber that would otherwise have gone into premium paper shopping bags.

Project 100 works by collecting waste paper — delivery boxes, packaging containers and similar materials — generated at its stores, processing it into raw material, and turning it into 100-percent recycled paper used to make new shopping bags. Over the four years, 1,758 tons of waste paper have gone into bag production. Because no additional processing such as coating is applied, the bags can also be recycled after use.

The eco-friendly shopping bag won the Red Dot Design Award in 2022 and the iF Design Award in the packaging design category in 2023.

Hyundai Department Store has also been running "Vinyl to Vinyl," an industry-first plastic-film recycling process, since June 2024. The system collects plastic film from stores, breaks it down through pyrolysis, and turns it into new plastic bags that are returned to store use.

The company plans to redesign the eco-friendly shopping bag next year. "We will lead the way in sincere ESG — environmental, social and governance — management that we can share with customers in everyday life," a company official said.


andy@heraldcorp.com