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Lotte Chilsung Beverage has put a governance system in place to minimize environmental impact across the packaging lifecycle—from sourcing materials to disposal—while maintaining high product quality and protecting consumer health.
The company is steadily working to make its plastic containers more sustainable.
Lotte Chilsung unveiled a \”2030 Plastic Reduction Roadmap\” that aims to cut the use of virgin, petroleum-derived plastics by about 20% by 2030 compared with 2023. The roadmap centers on two strategies: lightweighting plastic containers and increasing the share of recycled feedstock to reduce plastic emissions.
In January 2020, bottled-water brand Isis became the first in Korea to roll out a no-label bottle. Instead of a separate label, the brand name is embossed into the bottle—an eye-catching move that improves PET recycling efficiency and cuts down on label waste.
The label-free Isis quickly became a go-to choice for eco-minded shoppers and proved that sustainable packaging can influence purchasing decisions. Other major domestic water brands followed, and label-free packaging now represents more than half of the bottled-water market, establishing a new standard.
In February 2024, Isis got even lighter.
Lotte Chilsung reduced the bottle-neck height across its entire bottled-water lineup, including Isis and private-label products. That change lowered the annual plastic output from its bottled-water range by roughly 7.8%.
The company shortened the bottle-neck height from 18.5mm to 12.8mm, which reduced the preform weight for a 500ml bottle from 13.1g to 11.6g, and introduced a new cap called ET-CAP (Extra Tall CAP).
After years of research and testing, ET-CAP was designed to lower neck height while keeping the cap at a familiar height to preserve grip during opening. Because the bottle body offered limited scope for further reduction, engineers cut plastic in other areas and adopted this cap. Depending on the bottle size, the change trimmed container weight by up to 12%.
In October 2024, Isis opened a new chapter in eco-friendly packaging by launching the country’s first Ultra-Light Isis bottle weighing less than 10g.
The Ultra-Light Isis reduced the 500ml PET bottle weight from 11.6g to 9.4g—about an 18.4% decrease—and is roughly 57% lighter than the original 22g bottle used when Isis debuted in 1997.
By innovating production technologies that minimize plastic use and carbon emissions, the company helped make lightweighting a new consumer expectation in the bottled-water market.
Developing the Ultra-Light Isis was a string of challenges, especially balancing weight reduction with durability. Engineers validated package stability through a battery of tests: free-fall drop tests from typical drinking height (1.4m) to check for side and bottom breakage, freeze-thaw deformation checks, and simulations of distribution, transport, and stacking.
The National Institute of Environmental Research, an agency under the Ministry of Environment, monitored water quality under room-temperature, refrigerated, outdoor, and high-temperature storage conditions and confirmed the product has no impact on water quality.
The \”Isis 8.0 Ultra-Light\” compensates for structural limits by using a three-way segmented cross-rib design that evenly distributes loads and impacts despite the bottle’s thin walls.
In February 2026, that design won the top prize in the packaging category at the prestigious iF Design Awards, recognized for embedding brand philosophy, technical expertise, and sustainability into its design.
Earlier this year, Lotte Chilsung signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea National Park Service, Korea Post and others to build a transparent PET recycling ecosystem. The company will sort and process clear PET bottles collected in national parks into high-quality recycled feedstock, produce and sell recycled-material PET water, and subsidize logistics costs.
It will also supply bottled water to national parks at special prices as part of a campaign to raise visitors’ awareness of recycling.
Lotte Chilsung plans to launch an ultra-light 500ml MR-PET (mechanically recycled PET) Isis bottle made from 100% recycled plastic feedstock in the first half of this year.
A company spokesperson said, \”Under our vision of ‘realizing a healthy and respected corporate value,’ we have continuously pursued ESG goals such as carbon neutrality, building a circular plastics economy, and creating an eco-friendly supply chain. We will keep working to reduce environmental impacts across the entire process, from sourcing packaging materials to production and post-use disposal.\”
Last October, Lotte Chilsung launched Korea’s first MR-PET Chilsung Cider 500ml product made entirely from 100% recycled plastic feedstock. The company expects this product to reduce annual plastic emissions by about 2,200 metric tons.
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