Korean Food Giant Cuts 14 Tons of Plastic Per Year

A South Korean food company spent two years solving a problem most of us never knew existed, and the result could eliminate over 14 tons of plastic waste annually.

Dongwon F&B announced this month that it developed a new liquid container design that uses 3 to 4 percent less plastic than standard bottles. The breakthrough came from fixing the "sink" phenomenon, where the thick part near the bottle's mouth caves inward during manufacturing.

For years, companies compensated for this design flaw by adding a 12-sided protruding structure around the rim to prevent oil from seeping out. It worked, but it required extra plastic that added up across millions of bottles.

The packaging development team at Dongwon Food Science Research Institute started working on the problem in 2024. They redesigned the bottle structure from scratch, creating a container that holds its shape without the reinforced band while using less material overall.

The company plans to roll out the new design first for tuna oil and cooking oil products before expanding to other liquid items in its lineup. These containers mark the first time Dongwon designed its packaging entirely in-house, rather than adapting designs from U.S. and Japanese manufacturers.

The Ripple Effect

This redesign represents more than just one company's packaging upgrade. When a major food manufacturer reduces plastic in widely distributed products, the impact multiplies across grocery stores, distribution centers, and recycling facilities throughout the region.

Dongwon's "Less Plastic" initiative has been running since 2020, with the company promising continued research into reducing carbon emissions across its flagship products. Each small percentage reduction in plastic translates to tons of material that never needs to be produced, shipped, or disposed of.

The two-year development process shows that sustainable packaging doesn't happen overnight, but patient innovation can find solutions hiding in problems everyone else accepted as normal.

One bottle at a time, the plastic footprint shrinks.