Glass Water Bottles Introduced, Transparent Detergent Containers... Ban on Plastic Bag Use

Government to Announce 'Plastic-Free Measures' on 24th
20% Reduction in Plastic Waste by 2025
Restrictions on Delivery Container Thickness...Stricter Regulations on Bundled Packaging
Deposit System for Disposable Cups to Be Introduced from June 2022

Asia Economy DB=Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The government will apply the ban on single-use plastic bag usage to all industries starting in 2030. It will limit the thickness of plastic containers used for food delivery and extend the mandatory use of transparent PET bottles beyond beverage and water bottles to other PET products such as cosmetics and detergents. Through these measures, the government aims to reduce plastic waste by 20% by 2025. Additionally, in line with achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, there is a plan to transition petroleum-based plastics to eco-friendly bio-plastics.

On the 24th, the government held a National Policy Issue Inspection and Coordination Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun at the Government Seoul Office, where it finalized and announced the "Living Waste De-plasticization Measures." This plan includes reducing plastic production at the source, cutting down plastic household waste, and increasing recycling rates.

The government will first require container manufacturers to reduce plastic production. The goal is to decrease the plastic proportion among all containers from the current 47% to 38% by 2025. Instead, production of glass bottles, which are advantageous for reuse and recycling, will be increased. An official from the Ministry of Environment predicted, "Currently, over 90% of water bottles displayed in supermarkets are plastic, but in the future, it will be easier to find glass water bottles."

Plastic containers for food delivery will be reduced by imposing thickness limits starting next year. Currently, plastic delivery containers for dishes like gamjatang (pork bone soup) or seafood stew have thicknesses ranging from 0.8 to 1.2 mm, but limiting this to 1 mm is analyzed to reduce the amount by an average of 20%. However, since container thickness varies depending on the type and size of delivery food, the restriction will be decided based on further investigation.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The ban on single-use plastic bags will be expanded to all commercial activities by 2030. Convenience stores and bakeries will no longer provide single-use plastic bags for a fee; instead, customers will have to purchase volume-based bags or reusable shopping bags to carry their items.

Starting January next year, regulations on bundled packaging, such as 1+1 product packaging and packaging that combines gifts or promotional items, will be strengthened. However, to allow the related industries to adapt, a grace period until March next year will be provided, and small and medium-sized enterprises will be subject to the regulations from July next year. The deposit system for single-use cups will be introduced as scheduled in June 2022. This system requires customers at coffee shops and similar stores to pay a certain deposit in addition to the product price for cups and receive a refund upon returning the cups after use.

The mandatory use of transparent PET bottles, currently applied only to beverage and water bottles, will be gradually expanded to other PET products such as alcoholic beverages, cosmetics, and detergents. Additionally, companies using containers without labels (brand bands) will receive a 50% reduction in the producer responsibility fees they pay. Through this, the proportion of packaging materials that are difficult to recycle among packaging containers will be reduced from the current 34% to 15% by 2025, cutting it by more than half.

By 2025, ten public pyrolysis facilities that extract petroleum from waste vinyl will be expanded. Imports of plastic waste from overseas will be completely banned starting in 2022.

The Ministry of Environment plans to reduce plastic waste by 20% by 2025 and increase the recycling rate of waste plastics from the current 54% to 70% by 2025 through these de-plasticization measures. In the mid to long term, the goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by plastics by 30% by 2030 by cutting petroleum-based plastics and to transition to 100% bio-plastics by 2050.

Minister of Environment Cho Myung-rae stated, "To achieve a carbon-neutral society by 2050, transitioning to a de-plasticized society is essential," and added, "We will make multifaceted efforts across production, distribution, consumption, and recycling to reduce plastics."

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