SK Chemicals said Tuesday it will establish a regional partnership network to recycle discarded banners into new banner fabric using its depolymerization technology as part of efforts to tackle the nation’s mounting waste problem. According to the company, it has formed a banner recycling consortium with four partners — MOA and Daehan Media in the Gyeongsang region, Upcloth in the Jeolla region and the resource-circulation team of Seogwipo City on Jeju Island — to establish a regional recycling system. The partnership comes as Korea generates about 6,000 tons of discarded banners annually, with around 70 percent ending up in landfills or being incinerated, according to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment. Each of the targeted regions generates more than 1,000 metric tons of banner waste annually, according to the company. SK Chemicals will use its depolymerization technology as the core of the project, chemically breaking down plastic waste into molecular building blocks and converting it back into raw materials for producing new banner fabric. The technology can elimin