Carbon Neutral Points Usable Like Cash, Surpass 1.8 Million Subscribers

On the 23rd, the Ministry of Environment announced that the number of subscribers to the Carbon Neutral Point System has exceeded 1.8 million as of this month.

The Carbon Neutral Point System is a policy that provides points redeemable for cash when individuals practice various green activities in their daily lives.

The current system initially started in 2022 with a total of 260,000 subscribers, and the number of users has increased about sevenfold in two years. During the same period, the budget for point issuance also surged from 2.45 billion KRW to 14.8 billion KRW. The total points issued over three years amount to 26.2 billion KRW. The maximum amount an individual can receive is 70,000 KRW annually, and small business owners can receive up to 150,000 KRW depending on their performance with reusable containers.

The Ministry of Environment analyzed that the increase in users was helped by the expansion of benefit categories from six in 2022 to ten last year. Newly added categories, which were previously unavailable but highly anticipated, include the use of reusable cups (tumblers), return of disposable cups, disposal of high-quality recyclables, and return of old mobile phones.

The mobile application "Carbon Pay," launched this year, was also evaluated to have had a positive impact. Carbon Pay is an app that builds the Carbon Neutral Point System, which had been used only through a webpage, on a mobile platform. It also implemented features such as easy login service and store locator based on user location.

The Ministry of Environment plans to further expand participation and encourage active involvement from the younger generation by introducing additional categories such as "public bicycle use" and "zero food waste practice" starting next year.

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