SK chemicals Partners with Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Local Governments to Create a Leading Waste Banner Recycling Model

"Establishing a Complete Circular System for Waste Banners Through Public-Private Collaboration"

• Signing of MOU on Waste Banner Recycling for Regional and Corporate Co-Prosperity
• Led by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, with Participation from Five Local Governments: Sejong, Gangneung, Cheongju, Naju, and Changwon
• Establishing a Leading Model to Raise Waste Banner Recycling Rate from 30% to 100%

ULSAN, South Korea, June 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- To reduce waste from discarded banners, SK chemicals has joined hands with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, local governments, and private companies.

SK chemicals (President & CEO Ahn Jae-hyun) announced on the 5th that it signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on waste banner recycling for regional and corporate co-prosperity' at its Ulsan Plant in Nam-gu, Ulsan, together with five local governments, REVELOP, Sejinplus, and Kakao.

This agreement is part of a collaborative project among the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, local governments, and companies to establish a virtuous cycle for waste banners—collecting discarded banners, converting them into raw materials through chemical technology, and recycling them into new products.

Under the agreement, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will support coordination between local governments and companies to promote mutual growth. The five participating local governments—Sejong, Gangneung, Cheongju, Naju, and Changwon—will collect waste banners generated within their jurisdictions to establish a stable supply system, while also working to promote the adoption of products made from the recycled raw materials derived from these banners.

SK chemicals will be responsible for fully breaking down the collected waste banners at the molecular level using depolymerization-based circular recycling technology and converting them into recycled PET materials. Following the agreement, the recycled materials will first be applied to electrical and electronic products through mechanical recycling (compounding) combined with high-value-added technologies for a certain period. Starting at the end of this year, SK chemicals plans to begin full-scale production of recycled materials using chemical recycling technology.

The recycled PET materials produced by SK chemicals will be used by REVELOP and Kakao to manufacture a variety of end products such as clothing, desks, and banners, which will then be distributed and sold. In addition, Sejinplus is working to upcycle waste banners into automotive interior materials and construction materials through physical processing methods.

Through this agreement, SK chemicals expects that collaboration between local communities and businesses will help significantly increase the current waste banner recycling rate, which stands at only 30%.

According to the Ministry of Environment, approximately 6,000 tons of waste banners are generated annually. However, about 70% of these waste banners are currently incinerated or sent to landfills. The volume of waste banners generated annually by the five local governments participating in this agreement alone amounts to approximately 1.95 million tons.

Although there have been previous attempts to recycle waste banners, most were one-off efforts that repurposed the material into items such as reusable shopping bags. However, these repurposed products were often eventually incinerated or landfilled, highlighting limitations in terms of sustaining a true circular resource system.

In contrast, chemically recycled materials based on depolymerization can be repeatedly recycled without any degradation in quality, unlike mechanically recycled materials. If the PET material produced through this process is used as a raw material for banners, it enables the realization of a complete circular system—referred to as a 'closed loop'—where waste banners are turned back into new banners.

A representative from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety stated, "The results of this pilot project will be actively reflected in future policies to promote waste banner recycling. We plan to establish recycling guidelines at the central government level and expand successful cases nationwide based on performance analysis." The official added, "In addition, we will work with relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Environment, to encourage the use of recycled products and discuss strategies for market expansion."

SK chemicals plans to further accelerate the development and research of initiatives that enhance the sustainability of the circular economy, not only focusing on waste banners but also expanding to broader areas.

Kim Hyun-seok, Head of the Recycling Business Division at SK chemicals, stated, "Banners have long been used as a cost-effective and impactful promotional tool, but most are discarded after a single use, prompting various efforts to reduce related waste." He added, "Through this agreement, we aim to play a key role in establishing a circular economy for banners, while continuing our efforts to build a circular recycling ecosystem across diverse sectors both domestically and internationally."

Meanwhile, in 2023, SK chemicals invested approximately KRW 130 billion (USD 95.68 million) to establish SK Shantou and became the first in the world to commercialize production facilities for chemically recycled raw materials and products. In Korea, SK chemicals is also expanding its recycling-related production and research infrastructure by establishing facilities such as the Recycling Innovation Center within its Ulsan Plant site, which includes a pilot facility for chemically decomposing waste plastics to produce recycled raw materials (r-BHET).

"Establishing a Complete Circular System for Waste Banners Through Public-Private Collaboration"

• Signing of MOU on Waste Banner Recycling for Regional and Corporate Co-Prosperity
• Led by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, with Participation from Five Local Governments: Sejong, Gangneung, Cheongju, Naju, and Changwon
• Establishing a Leading Model to Raise Waste Banner Recycling Rate from 30% to 100%

ULSAN, South Korea, June 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- To reduce waste from discarded banners, SK chemicals has joined hands with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, local governments, and private companies.

SK chemicals (President & CEO Ahn Jae-hyun) announced on the 5th that it signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on waste banner recycling for regional and corporate co-prosperity' at its Ulsan Plant in Nam-gu, Ulsan, together with five local governments, REVELOP, Sejinplus, and Kakao.

This agreement is part of a collaborative project among the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, local governments, and companies to establish a virtuous cycle for waste banners—collecting discarded banners, converting them into raw materials through chemical technology, and recycling them into new products.

Under the agreement, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will support coordination between local governments and companies to promote mutual growth. The five participating local governments—Sejong, Gangneung, Cheongju, Naju, and Changwon—will collect waste banners generated within their jurisdictions to establish a stable supply system, while also working to promote the adoption of products made from the recycled raw materials derived from these banners.

SK chemicals will be responsible for fully breaking down the collected waste banners at the molecular level using depolymerization-based circular recycling technology and converting them into recycled PET materials. Following the agreement, the recycled materials will first be applied to electrical and electronic products through mechanical recycling (compounding) combined with high-value-added technologies for a certain period. Starting at the end of this year, SK chemicals plans to begin full-scale production of recycled materials using chemical recycling technology.

The recycled PET materials produced by SK chemicals will be used by REVELOP and Kakao to manufacture a variety of end products such as clothing, desks, and banners, which will then be distributed and sold. In addition, Sejinplus is working to upcycle waste banners into automotive interior materials and construction materials through physical processing methods.

Through this agreement, SK chemicals expects that collaboration between local communities and businesses will help significantly increase the current waste banner recycling rate, which stands at only 30%.

According to the Ministry of Environment, approximately 6,000 tons of waste banners are generated annually. However, about 70% of these waste banners are currently incinerated or sent to landfills. The volume of waste banners generated annually by the five local governments participating in this agreement alone amounts to approximately 1.95 million tons.

Although there have been previous attempts to recycle waste banners, most were one-off efforts that repurposed the material into items such as reusable shopping bags. However, these repurposed products were often eventually incinerated or landfilled, highlighting limitations in terms of sustaining a true circular resource system.

In contrast, chemically recycled materials based on depolymerization can be repeatedly recycled without any degradation in quality, unlike mechanically recycled materials. If the PET material produced through this process is used as a raw material for banners, it enables the realization of a complete circular system—referred to as a 'closed loop'—where waste banners are turned back into new banners.

A representative from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety stated, "The results of this pilot project will be actively reflected in future policies to promote waste banner recycling. We plan to establish recycling guidelines at the central government level and expand successful cases nationwide based on performance analysis." The official added, "In addition, we will work with relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Environment, to encourage the use of recycled products and discuss strategies for market expansion."

SK chemicals plans to further accelerate the development and research of initiatives that enhance the sustainability of the circular economy, not only focusing on waste banners but also expanding to broader areas.

Kim Hyun-seok, Head of the Recycling Business Division at SK chemicals, stated, "Banners have long been used as a cost-effective and impactful promotional tool, but most are discarded after a single use, prompting various efforts to reduce related waste." He added, "Through this agreement, we aim to play a key role in establishing a circular economy for banners, while continuing our efforts to build a circular recycling ecosystem across diverse sectors both domestically and internationally."

Meanwhile, in 2023, SK chemicals invested approximately KRW 130 billion (USD 95.68 million) to establish SK Shantou and became the first in the world to commercialize production facilities for chemically recycled raw materials and products. In Korea, SK chemicals is also expanding its recycling-related production and research infrastructure by establishing facilities such as the Recycling Innovation Center within its Ulsan Plant site, which includes a pilot facility for chemically decomposing waste plastics to produce recycled raw materials (r-BHET).

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

SK chemicals Partners with Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Local Governments to Create a Leading Waste Banner Recycling Model

SK chemicals Partners with Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Local Governments to Create a Leading Waste Banner Recycling Model

• Innovative technologies enable retailers to implement intelligent stores at scale to deliver smarter, more responsive shopping experiences
• Industry partners to display production-ready AI solutions for loss prevention, digital twins, AI agents, customer analytics, and more

SAN JOSE, Calif. and NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail's Big Show -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today announced collaboration with technology partners for AI-powered intelligent in-store retail solutions designed to meet increasing customer expectations with scalability, improved productivity and increased profitability.

"AI is reshaping shopping experiences, enabling real-time analysis of video and other data to give retailers actionable insights to optimizing staff efficiency, reducing shrinkage, increasing profits, and avoiding stock-outs," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "By combining Supermicro's complete and scalable AI platforms with NVIDIA RTX PRO accelerated computing solutions, we're enabling retailers to build intelligent stores that maximize the benefits of AI-driven applications."

According to the latest NVIDIA State of AI in Retail & CPG report, 89% of respondents reported that AI is helping to increase annual revenue, while 95% said it is helping decrease annual costs, highlighting the measurable business impact retailers are already achieving because of AI¹.

For more information, please visit https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/edge/servers

Supermicro Complete and Scalable Edge AI Infrastructure

Retail-centric AI applications require sub-second responsiveness which is only possible, at scale, if data is processed directly at the edge. Supermicro's Edge AI infrastructure enables the deployment of solutions in distributed environments, such as intelligent retail stores and supply chains, to provide a complete solution.

Deploying at the edge presents a myriad of unique challenges in comparison to the data center. Supermicro's broad Edge AI portfolio of products helps customers and partners overcome these challenges while striking the right balance between performance and ROI.

For deployments in harsh environments where conditioned space is not available, the fanless E103 series of products bring AI processing power where it couldn't go before. Supermicro also offers a fanned small form factor E300 series systems with AI capabilities.

When there is a demanding AI workload at the edge, customers and partners can turn to numerous systems capable of holding the latest discrete GPUs for AI acceleration. Ranging from 1U short-depth to larger 4U form factors, solutions can be right-sized to meet the customer's needs by enabling the latest generation of NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series.

Supermicro Intelligent Store Partners

Supermicro is collaborating with ecosystem partners including Everseen, Kinetic Vision, ALLSIDES, LiveX, WobotAI, and Aible, to create intelligent stores that positively impact day-to-day retail operations as well as longer term supply chain management.

• Everseen's Evercheck solution uses Vision AI to help reduce shrink and improve staff productivity and customer experiences. Built on the Everseen Vision AI platform, Evercheck detects, and deters recovery of unwanted behaviors at checkout, helping retailers recover losses and streamline front-of-store operations.

"Everseen has spent years working alongside some of the world's largest retailers, understanding the realities of the store floor and solving loss challenges where they actually happen," said Joe White, CEO of Everseen. "By partnering with Supermicro and leveraging NVIDIA-accelerated computing, Evercheck delivers real-time computer vision at the edge - transforming store activity into intelligence retailers can act on immediately."

• Wobot AI, focused on building Video AI Agents for the physical world, will be demonstrating how the cameras retailers already own can be turned into systems that continuously observe, learn, and produce usable insight. By converting ordinary CCTV infrastructure into autonomous agents that recognize patterns, identify friction, and surface decisions, Wobot's AI Agents enable retailers to improve day-to-day operations with practical and measurable outcomes.

"By working with Supermicro and NVIDIA at the edge, we're able to deploy Video AI Agents in a way that's scalable, reliable, and focused on real-time operational insight—not experimentation," said Will Kelso, President, Revenue & Growth at Wobot AI.

• LiveX AI - "Retail is entering an era where AI agents become the default interaction layer between brands and customers," said Jerry Li, Co-Founder and CEO of LiveX AI. "With NVIDIA's accelerated AI and Supermicro's edge infrastructure, we can deploy a helpful, human-like AI agent directly in physical spaces—such as kiosks or holograms—bringing the speed, intelligence, and continuity of digital experiences into brick-and-mortar environments. This collaboration makes AI agents usable, in real time, where customers actually are."

• • Kinetic Vision and ALLSIDES are bundling their expertise for a True Digital Twin solution designed to develop, test, and optimize supply chain processes, checkout stations, and other complex systems.

"The combination of Supermicro's high reliability optimized infrastructure and NVIDIA's accelerated computing stack gives Kinetic Vision the foundation to innovate at speed. Together, we are helping retailers move from experimentation to production-ready AI solutions that drive measurable operational and customer experience gains," says Jeremy Jarratt, Kinetic Vision CEO.

Franz Tschimben, CEO at ALLSIDES, adds: "Building on the combined strengths of NVIDIA and Supermicro, we deliver a high-fidelity 3D digital twin data layer for AI training that enables retailers to power applications across the entire retail value chain — from training robots with physical AI, to production and production planning, virtual store layouts and consumer feedback systems, and e-commerce integrations — helping drive higher conversion rates, faster decision-making, and greater operational efficiency."

• Supermicro will also feature Superb AI's retail-focused VSS solution, combining Superb AI's proprietary VLM with NVIDIA AI Blueprint components to enable subjective reasoning capabilities, natural-language search, automated incident summarization, and customer behavior insights across store camera networks.
• Aible will highlight its automated agent solution, which analyzes vast amounts of data across millions of patterns to explain changes in retail KPIs, such as the average purchase amount or number of purchases. Aible will also demonstrate how the latest NVIDIA Retail blueprints can be incorporated into agentic solutions that automatically customize customer experiences and optimize retail operations at scale.

Arijit Sengupta, CEO of Aible, adds, "Today's market and labor conditions are constantly changing. Only autonomous agents can understand and adjust to these ever-changing patterns of customer behavior, inventory costs and supply, and labor access at scale. Working with NVIDIA and Supermicro, Aible brings autonomous agents subject to business user review to the retail edge."

These intelligent retail solutions will be demonstrated by Supermicro and its partners at NRF: Retail's Big Show in New York City from January 11-13. To learn more about AI-powered retail applications or Supermicro's AI Infrastructure solutions, visit Supermicro booth #5281 and attend its speaking session featuring PepsiCo and Kinetic Vision. For more details, please visit www.supermicro.com/NRF

¹Source: "NVIDIA State of AI in Retail and CPG" 2026

About Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first to market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro's motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions® allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).

Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.

All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 

• Innovative technologies enable retailers to implement intelligent stores at scale to deliver smarter, more responsive shopping experiences
• Industry partners to display production-ready AI solutions for loss prevention, digital twins, AI agents, customer analytics, and more

SAN JOSE, Calif. and NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail's Big Show -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today announced collaboration with technology partners for AI-powered intelligent in-store retail solutions designed to meet increasing customer expectations with scalability, improved productivity and increased profitability.

"AI is reshaping shopping experiences, enabling real-time analysis of video and other data to give retailers actionable insights to optimizing staff efficiency, reducing shrinkage, increasing profits, and avoiding stock-outs," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "By combining Supermicro's complete and scalable AI platforms with NVIDIA RTX PRO accelerated computing solutions, we're enabling retailers to build intelligent stores that maximize the benefits of AI-driven applications."

According to the latest NVIDIA State of AI in Retail & CPG report, 89% of respondents reported that AI is helping to increase annual revenue, while 95% said it is helping decrease annual costs, highlighting the measurable business impact retailers are already achieving because of AI¹.

For more information, please visit https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/edge/servers

Supermicro Complete and Scalable Edge AI Infrastructure

Retail-centric AI applications require sub-second responsiveness which is only possible, at scale, if data is processed directly at the edge. Supermicro's Edge AI infrastructure enables the deployment of solutions in distributed environments, such as intelligent retail stores and supply chains, to provide a complete solution.

Deploying at the edge presents a myriad of unique challenges in comparison to the data center. Supermicro's broad Edge AI portfolio of products helps customers and partners overcome these challenges while striking the right balance between performance and ROI.

For deployments in harsh environments where conditioned space is not available, the fanless E103 series of products bring AI processing power where it couldn't go before. Supermicro also offers a fanned small form factor E300 series systems with AI capabilities.

When there is a demanding AI workload at the edge, customers and partners can turn to numerous systems capable of holding the latest discrete GPUs for AI acceleration. Ranging from 1U short-depth to larger 4U form factors, solutions can be right-sized to meet the customer's needs by enabling the latest generation of NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series.

Supermicro Intelligent Store Partners

Supermicro is collaborating with ecosystem partners including Everseen, Kinetic Vision, ALLSIDES, LiveX, WobotAI, and Aible, to create intelligent stores that positively impact day-to-day retail operations as well as longer term supply chain management.

• Everseen's Evercheck solution uses Vision AI to help reduce shrink and improve staff productivity and customer experiences. Built on the Everseen Vision AI platform, Evercheck detects, and deters recovery of unwanted behaviors at checkout, helping retailers recover losses and streamline front-of-store operations.

"Everseen has spent years working alongside some of the world's largest retailers, understanding the realities of the store floor and solving loss challenges where they actually happen," said Joe White, CEO of Everseen. "By partnering with Supermicro and leveraging NVIDIA-accelerated computing, Evercheck delivers real-time computer vision at the edge - transforming store activity into intelligence retailers can act on immediately."

• Wobot AI, focused on building Video AI Agents for the physical world, will be demonstrating how the cameras retailers already own can be turned into systems that continuously observe, learn, and produce usable insight. By converting ordinary CCTV infrastructure into autonomous agents that recognize patterns, identify friction, and surface decisions, Wobot's AI Agents enable retailers to improve day-to-day operations with practical and measurable outcomes.

"By working with Supermicro and NVIDIA at the edge, we're able to deploy Video AI Agents in a way that's scalable, reliable, and focused on real-time operational insight—not experimentation," said Will Kelso, President, Revenue & Growth at Wobot AI.

• LiveX AI - "Retail is entering an era where AI agents become the default interaction layer between brands and customers," said Jerry Li, Co-Founder and CEO of LiveX AI. "With NVIDIA's accelerated AI and Supermicro's edge infrastructure, we can deploy a helpful, human-like AI agent directly in physical spaces—such as kiosks or holograms—bringing the speed, intelligence, and continuity of digital experiences into brick-and-mortar environments. This collaboration makes AI agents usable, in real time, where customers actually are."

• • Kinetic Vision and ALLSIDES are bundling their expertise for a True Digital Twin solution designed to develop, test, and optimize supply chain processes, checkout stations, and other complex systems.

"The combination of Supermicro's high reliability optimized infrastructure and NVIDIA's accelerated computing stack gives Kinetic Vision the foundation to innovate at speed. Together, we are helping retailers move from experimentation to production-ready AI solutions that drive measurable operational and customer experience gains," says Jeremy Jarratt, Kinetic Vision CEO.

Franz Tschimben, CEO at ALLSIDES, adds: "Building on the combined strengths of NVIDIA and Supermicro, we deliver a high-fidelity 3D digital twin data layer for AI training that enables retailers to power applications across the entire retail value chain — from training robots with physical AI, to production and production planning, virtual store layouts and consumer feedback systems, and e-commerce integrations — helping drive higher conversion rates, faster decision-making, and greater operational efficiency."

• Supermicro will also feature Superb AI's retail-focused VSS solution, combining Superb AI's proprietary VLM with NVIDIA AI Blueprint components to enable subjective reasoning capabilities, natural-language search, automated incident summarization, and customer behavior insights across store camera networks.
• Aible will highlight its automated agent solution, which analyzes vast amounts of data across millions of patterns to explain changes in retail KPIs, such as the average purchase amount or number of purchases. Aible will also demonstrate how the latest NVIDIA Retail blueprints can be incorporated into agentic solutions that automatically customize customer experiences and optimize retail operations at scale.

Arijit Sengupta, CEO of Aible, adds, "Today's market and labor conditions are constantly changing. Only autonomous agents can understand and adjust to these ever-changing patterns of customer behavior, inventory costs and supply, and labor access at scale. Working with NVIDIA and Supermicro, Aible brings autonomous agents subject to business user review to the retail edge."

These intelligent retail solutions will be demonstrated by Supermicro and its partners at NRF: Retail's Big Show in New York City from January 11-13. To learn more about AI-powered retail applications or Supermicro's AI Infrastructure solutions, visit Supermicro booth #5281 and attend its speaking session featuring PepsiCo and Kinetic Vision. For more details, please visit www.supermicro.com/NRF

¹Source: "NVIDIA State of AI in Retail and CPG" 2026

About Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first to market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro's motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions® allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).

Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.

All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

Supermicro Announces Intelligent In-Store Retail Solutions in Collaboration with a Broad Range of Industry Partners