60% of Ice Packs Use Water and Starch... Ministry of Environment to Accelerate Transition to Eco-Friendly Products

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[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Jusangdon] It has been revealed that 60% of ice packs used in online food delivery are eco-friendly products made from water, starch, and other materials. However, the remaining 40% still use superabsorbent polymer (SAP) ice packs. In response, the Ministry of Environment plans to accelerate the use of eco-friendly ice packs through information provision and the imposition of waste disposal fees.

The Ministry of Environment, together with the Korea Consumer Agency, announced the results on the 27th after investigating the usage status of ice packs used in online food delivery for two months starting from March this year.

Among 57 ice packs included in a total of 64 products purchased from 32 businesses, 22 (38.6%) contained superabsorbent polymer refrigerants, while 35 (61.4%) contained eco-friendly refrigerants such as water, starch, and salt.

Superabsorbent polymer is a plastic capable of absorbing large amounts of water and is used in products like diapers. When used as a refrigerant with water, it maintains coldness longer than ice. However, it is not biodegradable and is difficult to recycle, which can directly cause environmental pollution if buried or discharged into sewage.

Recently, cases of using eco-friendly refrigerants composed of water or a mixture of water, starch, and salt instead of superabsorbent polymer in ice packs have been increasing. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Environment in 2020 targeting ice pack manufacturers, the production volume of eco-friendly ice packs increased by 2.24 times (22 percentage points) in 2020 compared to 2019. In this recent survey, when asked by phone interview about the usage volume by refrigerant type and plans to switch to eco-friendly refrigerant ice packs, 12 out of 17 respondents (37.5%) stated that they either use only eco-friendly ice packs according to internal policies or plan to complete the transition within this year.

The Ministry of Environment believes that the low voluntary participation of companies in using eco-friendly ice packs is due to the difficulty for online distributors to control the types of ice packs used by individual sellers on their platforms and the cost burden associated with switching to eco-friendly ice packs. According to a study conducted by the Ministry of Environment in January last year titled 'Research on Ice Pack Distribution Status and Optimal Disposal Measures,' switching to eco-friendly ice packs incurs an average additional cost of 37.9 KRW per unit.

Therefore, the Ministry of Environment plans to promote policies such as regularly inspecting and informing consumers about distributors and sellers using eco-friendly ice packs and imposing appropriate waste disposal fees on superabsorbent polymer ice packs to encourage companies to use eco-friendly ice packs.

Previously, in August 2020, the Ministry of Environment designated ice packs using superabsorbent polymer as refrigerants as items subject to waste disposal fees and announced an amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the 'Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling Resources,' which imposes a fee of 313 KRW per kilogram on manufacturing and import starting from 2022.

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