As we all know, South Korea has enforced regulations banning the usage of plastic materials that are difficult to recycle such as PVC and coloured PET bottles for the packaging of food and beverage items. This is part of the country's objective to reduce its plastic waste production by half, as well as more than double recycling rates from 34% to 70% by 2030.
"The comprehensive countermeasures focus on enhancing public management and stabilizing the recycling market," South Korean Ministry of Environment(MoE)
"The government will be involved in the life cycle of the products, starting from production to the recycling process."
The ban was implemented by the MoE under the Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources, focusing on PVC(Polyvinyl chloride) and coloured PET(Polyethylene terephthalate)plastic bottles, as these are known to be more difficult to recycle as compared to transparent PET plastic bottles.
ln addition to this, MoE stated in the original statement announcing this change that even PET bottle labels that are hard to recycle would be prohibited.
There is also a critical need for aluminum cans in the recycling stream right now. One thing that could be foiling your good recycling intentions is if you are including any cans with plastic shrink wrap labels on them in your bin. In recent years, more and more craft beers, iced coffee, and kombucha beverages are choosing these types of labels. Those labels do not come off well in the normal metal delacquering process during recycling. Any aluminum cans that have a sticker or wrap label can be removed from the can before putting them in the recycling.
If you have cans with labels that look like the image on the top of our graphic, please remove the labels before putting the cans in your recycling bin. That way, you can ensure what is in your recycling bin is actually getting recycled!
While leaving the label on the can doesn’t prevent it from being recycled – it has potential to reduce the material quality if there are too many mixed into the bale. The less residue we put in the blue bin, the better it is for our recycling.
