Grade summary

Lotte Chemical has shown an upward trend and scores a C- in ChemScore this year, with only two other companies having increased their scores more. Notably, Lotte Chemical has significantly improved its reporting on chemical management and circular topics. Currently, the company produces zero SIN List substances and zero persistent chemicals, but only 14 per cent of its production is known.

Even though the company has a strategy for reducing the content of hazardous chemicals in products and developing alternative substances, it needs to define hazardous substances more clearly and commit to not introducing new products with harmful chemicals on the market. While the company markets eco-friendly products and has set targets for recycled plastic and hydrogen supply, there’s room for more detail in its claims of sustainable and circular initiatives. Mechanical recycling is mentioned in the company’s roadmap but no information is available regarding its use of mechanically recycled material.

How did we come to this score?

Opportunities for improvement 

1. Market safer alternatives
   Lotte Chemical does not have any safer alternatives evaluated by independent third parties in its product portfolio. Safer alternatives replace the use of hazardous substances and are crucial in order to put an end to chemical pollution. The company should, therefore, start producing safer alternatives or market existing ones on an independent third-party platform. A good place to advertise is ChemSec’s Marketplace, where buyers and suppliers can find and market safer alternatives.

2. Increase transparency
   Much is still unknown about Lotte Chemical‘s production of hazardous chemicals, as not much of it is publicly available. In order to allow a comprehensive global evaluation, Lotte Chemical should disclose the share of revenue and production volume of hazardous chemicals (or products that contain them). This information should cover all operations globally. This is particularly important since only 14 % of the company’s sales are in the EU/US, where some degree of chemical transparency exists.

3. Publish design-out and phase-out strategies
   Lotte Chemical states that it conducts product hazard analysis starting with highly hazardous substances and develops products with improved safety. Also, its target to reduce environmentally hazardous substances by 50 per cent by 2030 is in place. A step further would be to publicly commit to design-out hazardous substances in newly developed products and phase-out in existing products with a clear timeline and progress reports.

Category breakdown