Incheon City Selected Consecutively for White Bio Industry Promotion Public Projects

Incheon Mayor Park Nam-chun is presiding over the 'Video Conference on the Announcement of the White Bio Industry Promotion Strategy.' April 9, 2021.
[Photo by Incheon City]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City has been consecutively selected as the executing institution in government public projects related to the white bio-industry development strategy.

According to the city on the 17th, it was first finally selected as the executing institution for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's "Plastic Alternative Material, Component, and Equipment Industry Support Center Establishment Project," and plans to establish a support center at Incheon National University with a budget of 15 billion KRW, including 7 billion KRW in national funds, by 2025.

Participating organizations include the Korea Conformity Laboratories (KCL), Incheon National University, Korea Petrochemical Industry Association, and Korea Plastic Industry Cooperative.

The city plans to build testing and evaluation infrastructure for biodegradability assessment in various environments, ecological toxicity evaluation of decomposition products, biomass content evaluation to verify plastic greenhouse gas reduction, as well as a bio-waste demonstration facility to create a full-cycle virtuous ecosystem for the production, disposal, and recycling of biodegradable plastics, and a pilot plant to support the development of petroleum-based biodegradable raw materials.

Additionally, to support export companies, the center will collaborate with the global certification body TUV Rheinland (DIN CERTCO certification) through a business agreement to ensure that test reports issued by the center in the fields of biodegradability and biomass are recognized overseas.

Along with this, the city will enhance the support system to strengthen corporate competitiveness and promote commercialization in the white bio-industry sector through support for standard development, hosting domestic and international conferences, workforce training, and prototype production assistance.

Biodegradable plastics are mainly used in food contact products such as straws, cups, trays, containers, and bags, and most are currently incinerated. It is estimated that 23,000 tons were consumed annually in Korea as of 2018, but this is expected to increase to over 100,000 tons annually after 2025, with biodegradable plastic waste emerging as a social issue.

Incheon City has also been appointed as the lead for the "Carbon Neutral City-Type Biodegradable Plastic Recycling Plant Demonstration Research" planning project by the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement.

Through this project, a large-scale eco-friendly treatment system will be established to solve plastic problems and reduce greenhouse gases by non-incineration and non-landfill treatment of biodegradable plastics.

Through the infrastructure establishment project, small-scale pilot demonstrations will be promoted, and from this year, it will be linked with the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement's planned research for the carbon-neutral city-type biodegradable plastic recycling plant demonstration research.

The city plans to design a resource circulation model for a pilot complex for large-scale collection of biodegradable plastic waste, build a bio-waste treatment facility capable of processing more than 1 ton per day, and establish a useful resource facility (greenhouse gas zero-emission energy self-sufficient demonstration model) to design a non-incineration, non-landfill carbon circulation economic model, with full-scale project implementation starting in 2023.

Mayor Park Namchun stated, "To simultaneously foster the white bio-industry and solve plastic social problems, we will continuously discover and promote various new projects to contribute to the realization of a national carbon-neutral society and strive further to achieve the vision of Incheon as a special environmental city."

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