Minister Han Jeong-ae Visits Recycled PET Factory: "Will Focus on Expanding Use of Recycled Materials" (Comprehensive)

Visit to Recycled PET Yarn Production Factory in Chilgok, Gyeongbuk

Minister of Environment Han Jeong-ae (first from the left) is listening to an explanation about the PET bottle recycling clothing production process during her visit to the TK Chemical polyester factory in Chilgok-gun, Gyeongbuk Province, on the afternoon of the 4th.

[Chilgok (Gyeongbuk) = Asia Economy, Reporter Joo Sang-don] Minister of Environment Han Jeong-ae announced on the 4th, "We will focus on promoting measures to expand the use of recycled raw materials this year." First, the Ministry of Environment plans to prepare support measures within this month to increase the collection rate of transparent PET bottles that can be recycled into recycled PET yarn and other products.

On the same day, Minister Han visited the 'TK (TK) Chemical Polyester Factory,' a recycled PET yarn production plant located in Chilgok, Gyeongbuk. Attending the site were representatives from companies such as Sparkle, Doosan E&T, TK Chemical, and Black Yak, who participated in the pilot project for separate collection of transparent PET bottles last year and the development of recycled clothing and cosmetic container prototypes.

Sparkle, a bottled water producer, has been collecting used PET bottles since November 2019 when delivering bottled water orders. Since December last year, they have introduced bottled water without labels.

The used PET bottles collected by Sparkle are processed into flakes by Doosan E&T, and TK Chemical produces recycled containers or recycled yarn from the flakes. Using these materials, Black Yak has been producing and selling summer T-shirts and jackets since July last year. Recently, they have been attempting to expand the product range to include dress shirts.

Minister Han said, "Since the end of last year, separate collection of transparent PET bottles has been implemented, and the success of this can be the starting point for plastic reduction and resource circulation." She added, "To ensure this system is well established, we will review the difficulties in separate collection after the Lunar New Year holiday and derive support measures to be implemented immediately."

Based on the 'Living Waste Plastic Reduction Measures' jointly announced by related ministries in December last year, the Ministry of Environment plans to intensively promote measures to expand the use of recycled raw materials this year. First, to supply high-quality recycled raw materials, separate collection of transparent PET bottles has been implemented in nationwide apartment complexes since December 25 last year. The sorting and recycling industries are also working on facility improvements to produce high-quality recycled raw materials. The Ministry of Environment plans to expand the annual production of high-quality PET recycled raw materials from 28,000 tons in 2019 to over 100,000 tons by 2022, completely replacing the imported waste PET and recycled raw materials (78,000 tons in 2019).

The Ministry of Environment is also promoting institutional improvements to secure stable demand. The mandatory use system for recycled raw materials, currently applied only to paper, glass, and iron, will be newly established for plastics, gradually increasing the use ratio of recycled plastic raw materials to 30% by 2030. To encourage companies' voluntary use of recycled raw materials, they are promoting reductions in producer responsibility recycling fees proportional to the amount of recycled raw materials used by producers.

Minister Han stated, "As the use of recycled raw materials increases, plastic usage decreases, making this one of the important measures to accelerate carbon neutrality." She added, "We will establish a stable supply and demand system for recycled raw materials and build a foundation for a circular economy that communicates with the public, making this year a pivotal year for realizing a circular economy."

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