Renew System (CEO Lee Jong-yong) announced on the 5th that Mr. Roger Brou and Mr. Gerald Esambe Njume, senior officials from the African Development Bank (AfDB) who attended the Korea-Africa Summit as part of the economic delegation, visited the Renew System Wonju Campus along with researchers from the Korea Environmental Industry Research Institute and Eco Network.

According to the company, the delegation visited to assess the current status of recycling initiatives in Korea in relation to a feasibility study on waste textile recycling in Ghana, which is currently one of Africa's major headaches, and to secure a recycling business network between Korea and Africa in the future.

A representative from Renew System explained, "It is known that tens of millions of used clothes from around the world pour into Ghana every week, where they are either incinerated or dumped into rivers. The problem is that most of them are synthetic fibers made of non-biodegradable plastic materials." The representative added, "While waste plastics can be addressed to some extent through existing physical recycling methods, the same cannot be said for waste textiles."

The representative further stated, "Since most waste textiles are synthetic fibers, recycling them requires technology to separate the chemical properties of dyes within the fibers, which are a mixture of various materials and colors, a technology that has not existed until now."

To solve this problem, a research team led by Dr. Cho Jung-mo at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) developed a sorting technology capable of separating recyclable raw materials by utilizing the chemical properties of dyes within waste clothing. They also developed, for the first time in the world, a recycling technology that returns the sorted waste synthetic fibers back to their original monomer raw materials. Renew System received a technology transfer to commercialize this technology. Roger Bru of the African Development Bank expressed deep empathy for Renew System’s commercialization project for waste textile recycling, emphasizing that “the current waste textile issue is a problem that needs to be solved not only in Ghana but also in most African countries, including populous nations like Nigeria and Ethiopia.” He then explored the possibility of technology transfer to Renew System.

Meanwhile, Renew System is a global waterproofing solution company established in 1999. It is a technology-intensive "strong small business" whose eco-friendly waterproofing agent, TurboSeal, made from waste rubber, was selected as one of the "Top 10 New Technologies in Korea," a rare achievement for a SME.

Maeil Business Newspaper, Reporter Namgung Seon-hee