Ahead of Seollal, Nationwide Supermarkets Undergo Excessive Packaging Inspections...Fines Up to 3 Million KRW

Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, 17 cities and provinces nationwide will conduct intensive inspections to prevent resource waste caused by excessive packaging.

The inspections will be carried out from the 13th to the 24th, focusing on distribution stores nationwide, and a fine of up to 3 million KRW will be imposed on those who manufacture or import products violating packaging standards.

Local governments across the country will issue packaging inspection orders for products with excessive packaging layers or packaging disproportionate to the product size, in accordance with the "Regulations on Standards for Packaging Materials and Methods of Products," to determine violations.

Gift sets (composite products) such as primary foods, processed foods, and alcoholic beverages, which have high sales during holidays, must comply with packaging methods of no more than two layers and a packaging space ratio of 25% or less.

Last year before the Chuseok holiday, 17 cities and provinces nationwide inspected 9,447 cases and examined 837 of them to determine violations. Among these, 62 products (7.4% of inspected cases) violated packaging standards, resulting in a total fine of 64.9 million KRW.

Among the violating products, 19 cases (30.6%) were composite products and 43 cases (69.4%) were unit products. By product type, cosmetics accounted for 20 cases (32.3%), toys and dolls 13 cases (21.0%), processed foods 11 cases (17.7%), and others 18 cases (29%).

Lee Young-gi, Director of the Resource Circulation Policy Division at the Ministry of Environment, said, "To build a resource-circulating society, it is most important to save resources and fundamentally reduce unnecessary waste generation," adding, "Manufacturers and importers of packaging materials must deeply recognize the necessity of environmentally friendly packaging and continue to develop it to reduce packaging waste."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.