No Crackdown on Overpackaging for 2 Years... 70% of Delivery Companies Exempt from Regulations

2-Year Grace Period... Excluding Annual Sales Under 50 Billion KRW
Ministry of Environment Announces Plan to Regulate Excessive Packaging

View of Dong Seoul Postal Logistics Center, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. The photo is unrelated to the article content. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Ministry of Environment will postpone enforcement of the oversized packaging regulation, scheduled to take effect at the end of next month, by two years. Additionally, courier companies with annual sales under 50 billion KRW, which account for 70% of the market, will be exempt from the regulation.

On the 7th, the Ministry of Environment announced a plan to promote the oversized packaging regulation considering the conditions of the distribution industry. The plan mainly relaxes the "Standards for Packaging Materials and Methods of Products" regulation set to be enforced on the 30th of next month. Originally, the regulation limited the number of packaging layers to one and mandated that the packaging space ratio be kept below 50% to reduce packaging materials used during transportation to consumers.

The distribution industry has expressed difficulties ahead of the implementation of the oversized packaging regulation. Due to economic and efficiency considerations, various products must be transported using about 10 types of packaging standards, but complying with the regulation requires securing more types and storage locations. In particular, the industry reportedly appealed to the Ministry of Environment that additional hiring and significant time and investment are needed to improve packaging and logistics systems.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Environment will implement the system from the 30th but operate a two-year guidance period. Since this is a newly introduced system, the industry will be given time to develop packaging improvement plans based on the enforcement standards. Lee Chang-heum, Director of the Climate Carbon Policy Office, explained, "We have been preparing for implementation through research projects, meetings, and sample surveys since last year. Because this is a new system with no similar precedents, we judged that it is better to test it on-site first and then develop improvement measures rather than immediately impose fines or enforcement."

Furthermore, companies with annual sales under 50 billion KRW will be excluded from the regulation. The courier volume handled by companies with less than 50 billion KRW in annual sales accounts for about 9.5% of the total. It is known that the companies benefiting from this exemption represent about 70% of the total 1.32 million companies. At the same time, the Ministry of Environment stated it will actively encourage large companies to voluntarily reduce packaging materials.

Exceptions have also been introduced. Cooling materials packaged together to protect product quality will be included in the calculation of the packaging space ratio. Packaging with plastic bags used to closely attach cooling materials to products will not be counted as an additional packaging layer. If packaging materials are collected and reused or if gift wrapping is requested by consumers, the regulation will not be applied.

However, the Ministry of Environment explained that the two-year grace period and exemption measures do not represent a rollback of the regulation. Director Lee said, "It seems unreasonable to immediately enforce the new system alongside crackdowns. The European Union (EU) is also discussing plans to introduce packaging waste regulations in the 2030s. Our preparation period may not have been very long either," he argued.

Han Hwa-jin, Minister of Environment, stated, "Rather than uniform regulation, we will reduce transportation packaging materials based on industry autonomy and government support. We will communicate with the industry through reasonable policies considering field conditions to encourage participation."

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