"Prevention of Fine Dust" Intensive Collection of Agricultural Waste like Plastic Film... Compensation Provided

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of Environment will conduct a focused collection of abandoned agricultural waste in rural farming areas nationwide from the 16th of this month until July 11th.

Agricultural waste mainly consists of vinyl used during farming and pesticide containers. Of the approximately 320,000 tons of waste vinyl generated annually (including foreign substances), about 19%, or 60,000 tons, remain uncollected, abandoned, or incinerated. This causes secondary environmental pollution such as fine dust generation and is a cause of forest fires.

The focused collection is carried out in cooperation with local governments, Nonghyup (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation), and agricultural organizations, typically around the busy farming seasons (March to May, November to December) every year. During the collection period in the first half of this year, 43,952 tons of waste vinyl and 876 tons of waste pesticide containers were collected.

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

During this collection period, situation rooms will be operated at regional headquarters of the Environment Corporation to continuously monitor the status of agricultural waste collection and to prevent fine dust generation in advance.

The Ministry of Environment will promote the proper disposal methods of agricultural waste and the collection reward system to farmers in each region.

To minimize the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), regional collection events held until last year will not take place. Instead, the Environment Corporation and private consignment collection operators will attach promotional leaflets about the agricultural waste collection reward system to collection vehicles and other equipment.

The collection reward system pays farmers a reward based on the type and amount of waste when they bring agricultural waste to local government joint collection centers. Waste vinyl is compensated at 50 to 330 KRW per kilogram depending on the 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 prize of approximately 10 million KRW to local governments with excellent collection performance by combining the results of the first and second half of this year.

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