Ministry of Environment "Focused Collection of Agricultural Waste Such as Waste Vinyl and Pesticide Containers... Compensation Provided"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of Environment announced on the 15th that it will intensively collect agricultural waste in rural areas nationwide during the spring season.

The Ministry of Environment plans to intensively collect agricultural waste left unattended in farmland across rural areas nationwide from April 16 to May 15, a two-month period.

Agricultural waste mainly consists of used and discarded waste vinyl and waste pesticide containers. Of the approximately 320,000 tons of waste vinyl generated annually nationwide, about 19%, or 60,000 tons, remain uncollected, left unattended, or are illegally incinerated. This causes secondary environmental pollution such as fine dust and leads to forest fires.

The intensive collection of agricultural waste is conducted twice a year, in spring (March to May) and autumn (November to December), around the busy farming seasons, in cooperation with local governments, the NongHyup (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation), and farmers' organizations.

The collected agricultural waste is transported to the Korea Environment Corporation, where waste vinyl is crushed, washed, and compressed to be recycled as raw materials, and waste pesticide containers are either recycled or incinerated.

During the intensive collection period, the Ministry of Environment also plans to promote the proper disposal methods of agricultural waste and the collection reward system to farmers in each region.

However, to minimize the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), no local collection events will be held. Instead, the Korea Environment Corporation and private consigned collection operators will attach promotional posters about the collection reward system on collection vehicles and other places.

The collection reward system pays farmers a reward based on the type and amount of waste when they bring agricultural waste to joint collection points designated by local governments.

For waste vinyl, local governments pay collection rewards ranging from 10 to 250 KRW per kilogram (varies by local government). For waste pesticide containers, 80 KRW is paid per bag-type container and 100 KRW per bottle-type container.

The Corporation plans to award a total of about 10 million KRW (up to 1.5 million KRW per group) to local governments, village women's associations, youth groups, and others with outstanding collection performance by combining the results of the first and second half of this year.

Lee Young-gi, Director of the Resource Circulation Policy Division at the Ministry of Environment, said, "We hope local governments will establish plans to collect agricultural waste in a way that minimizes face-to-face contact with private collection operators and local residents during the intensive collection period to ensure that the collection proceeds without COVID-19 impact."

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