Seoul 'Arisu' Water Bottles Remove Plastic Labels and Launch Biodegradable PET Bottles

Increase Recycling Rates and Reduce Plastic Usage

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Seoul City will produce a colorless and transparent "No-label Bottled Arisu," which eliminates the plastic label on the PET bottle container of the drinking tap water "Bottled Arisu." This is in response to concerns that plastic labels on PET bottles cause inconvenience in separate disposal and recycling and contribute to environmental pollution.

On the 21st, Seoul City announced through the "Eco-friendly Bottled Arisu Innovation Plan" that it will move toward a "plastic-free" era by reducing plastic use and switching to eco-friendly materials. Of the total 500,000 Bottled Arisu produced this year, 400,000 bottles will be made with no-label PET bottles, and 100,000 bottles will be produced using biodegradable materials.

Previously, Seoul City significantly reduced the production volume of Bottled Arisu in line with efforts to reduce single-use plastics, and since last year, it has supplied and stockpiled them only for emergency water supply in areas with water outages or disasters. The production volume of Bottled Arisu, which was 6.02 million bottles in 2017, decreased to 1.02 million bottles in 2019, about one-sixth, and will be further reduced to 500,000 bottles this year, about half of the previous amount.

Accordingly, the amount of plastic used in the production of Bottled Arisu containers was reduced by about 66%, from 117.3 tons in 2017 to 40.8 tons in 2019. The city also lightened the weight of PET bottles (empty bottles) from 19 grams to 14 grams, a 26.3% reduction, and improved the bottle labels by introducing non-adhesive labels (heat-shrink method) instead of glue to facilitate separate disposal.

The no-label Bottled Arisu, launched from this month, reduces plastic usage by embossing the "Arisu" brand on the PET bottle body instead of using a plastic label.

Additionally, the biodegradable Bottled Arisu, which will be pilot-produced in the second half of this year, will be the first in Korea to use eco-friendly biodegradable materials for PET bottles. The biodegradable material uses raw materials extracted from plant starches such as corn and sugarcane and is an eco-friendly material that naturally decomposes 90% within six months. Since biodegradable materials are used for the entire water bottle, cap, and label, separate disposal is not necessary.

While PET bottle products using biodegradable materials have been produced overseas, such as Coca-Cola's "PlantBottle" in the United States, this is the first attempt in Korea.

Seoul City plans to have the Seoul Water Institute test the stability of water quality when tap water containing chlorine is stored long-term in biodegradable bottles, as well as determine the shelf life, appropriate storage methods, and temperatures. Based on the results, the city will consider expanding the adoption of biodegradable bottles.

Meanwhile, Seoul City has equipped a 3,000㎡ (two above-ground floors) production facility and storage/refrigeration warehouse within the Yeongdeungpo Water Purification Center for Bottled Arisu production. It maintains a stockpile of about 140,000 bottles to provide rapid support in case of water outages or drinking water shortages.

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