[3rd Supplementary Budget] Creating 10,000 Recycling Sorting Jobs with 42.2 Billion Won

Ministry of Environment's Supplementary Budget Allocates 586.7 Billion Won to Green New Deal
Mostly for Electric Vehicle Distribution and Waste Crisis Prevention
Most Jobs Are Short-Term, Focused on Epidemic Response and Dam Management

Asia Economy DB=Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] More than 70% of the approximately 600 billion KRW Green New Deal budget under the Ministry of Environment is expected to be spent on the distribution of electric vehicles and preventing waste crises. 42.2 billion KRW will be invested in collecting and sorting recyclables to create 10,000 direct jobs. Environmental jobs created in the private sector are expected to be only about 4,000, making the Green New Deal slogan of creating jobs through eco-friendly investment seem hollow.

On the 3rd, the government held an extraordinary Cabinet meeting and resolved to prepare a third supplementary budget of 35.3 trillion KRW. Of this, 695.1 billion KRW is the supplementary budget under the Ministry of Environment. The total number of jobs created by the Ministry of Environment’s budget is estimated at 17,000, of which 12,985 are direct jobs. Jobs created in the private sector amount to only about 4,000.

Since the budget must be used within this year, the direct jobs are expected to be short-term part-time jobs. 42.2 billion KRW will be invested solely to hire 10,843 people for collecting and sorting recyclables. Other direct job projects include African swine fever response (744 people, 8.1 billion KRW), management of wild animals entering from overseas (500 people, 5.2 billion KRW), groundwater facility investigation (360 people, 1.8 billion KRW), and dam safety management (253 people, 2.9 billion KRW).

The Ministry of Environment plans to spend 84% (58.67 billion KRW) of the supplementary budget on the Green New Deal. The largest item in the Green New Deal projects is the "Future Environmental Industry Promotion Loan" project, with a budget of 33 billion KRW. This project is essentially the same as the Ministry’s previously conducted "Environmental Policy Fund Loan" project, differing only in name. It provides loans to recycling and environmental companies or supports small and medium-sized enterprises in installing pollution prevention facilities.

Most of the Future Environmental Industry Promotion Loan budget is expected to be used for the recycling industry, which has fallen into stagnation. Recycling companies are suffering severe management difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and falling oil prices. The continued drop in plastic prices, which makes incineration costs higher, raises concerns about a waste crisis.

In fact, as recycling companies facing financial difficulties have flooded loan applications, 92.4 billion KRW was disbursed as of the end of May for recycling industry promotion funds within the Environmental Policy Fund Loan project. This amount is the largest compared to environmental industry promotion funds (29.8 billion KRW), small and medium-sized enterprise environmental improvement funds (31.2 billion KRW), and natural gas supply facility installation funds (900 million KRW).

The Ministry of Environment will invest 99 billion KRW and 11.5 billion KRW to distribute 5,500 electric cargo vehicles and 10,000 electric two-wheelers, respectively. These are also included in the Green New Deal budget. Electric vehicle distribution and the Future Environmental Industry Promotion Loan project account for 75% of the Green New Deal budget. Regarding this, a Ministry of Environment official explained, "This supplementary budget was prepared targeting projects that can be immediately launched in the second half of the year with significant job creation effects to respond to the climate and environmental crisis and the economic recession caused by COVID-19."

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