"Preventing the Plastic Crisis" Ministry of Environment Implements 10,000 Tons Public Stockpiling of PET Recycled Raw Materials

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of Environment will begin public stockpiling of 10,000 tons of PET recycling raw materials, which have been accumulating due to the COVID-19 pandemic, starting from the 7th.

Recently, as international oil prices have fallen due to COVID-19, the competitiveness of plastic recycling raw materials has declined, and exports have sharply decreased since last month, causing sales of PET recycling raw materials, which heavily depend on overseas exports, to plummet.

The sales volume of recycling raw materials by PET recycling companies dropped by about 46%, from an average of 16,855 tons between January and March to 9,116 tons last month. As inventory increases, there are concerns about market rigidity spreading sequentially to the sorting and collection stages due to the distribution structure of recycled waste.

In response, the Ministry of Environment will invest 500 million won to publicly stockpile 10,000 tons out of a total inventory of 18,000 tons. The Korea Recycling Resource Distribution Center will pre-purchase at half the market price, store the materials in idle sites and private rental sites, and then resell them to companies at the same price by December. This is expected to contribute to securing liquidity for the recycling industry and facilitating the distribution flow of recycled products.

An official from the Ministry of Environment stated, "Alongside public stockpiling, we will work with the industry to discover new demand sources and promote restrictions on waste or recycling raw material imports. We also plan to promptly apply a price linkage system that adjusts the sales price of recycled products at the collection stage."

To discover new demand sources, support will be provided for developing export channels, and efforts will be made to replace imported raw materials with domestic recycling raw materials through signing MOUs with final demand sources and the recycling industry.

Additionally, together with the pilot project for separate collection of PET bottles implemented since February, support will be provided to ensure that transparent waste PET bottles can be produced into high-quality recycled raw materials used for clothing production and other purposes.

On the afternoon of the same day, Minister of Environment Cho Myung-rae visited Saerom ENG, a PET recycling company located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, to inspect the public stockpiling site.

Minister Cho said, "As instability has increased due to COVID-19, we will respond strictly by preparing measures considering even the worst-case scenarios. We ask for cooperation in refraining from unnecessary single-use products and properly separating recyclable waste."

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