Staff in a restaurant in South Korea show paper straws they provide their customers (Photo: GS25 via hankooki.com)
By UCA News reporter
Dec 1 2023
A South Korean government decision not to implement a ban on the use of disposable products, including plastic, has triggered criticism from environmental groups.
It had set a one year grace period in November last year before fully implementing the ban to reduce the use of disposable plastic products and protect the environment from pollution.
The Ministry of Environment had announced that it would impose fines of up to 10 million won(US$7,706) against violators.
However, the grace period expired on Nov 24, just after the the ministry backtracked and decided not to implement an enforced ban.
“In order to ease the burden on small business owners and minimize on-site confusion, we plan to rationalize regulations and change the disposable product management policy from ‘imposing fines’ to ‘encouraging voluntary participation,'” the ministry said on Nov 7.
“We expect that efforts to reduce disposable products will be more successfully achieved through the participation of all members of our society, rather than assuming the sacrifice of one sector of our society,” it added.
The decision dismayed environmental groups, who slammed the government.
“Despite being an entity that must take the lead in reducing plastics, the Korean government has recently shown signs of going against the trend, such as withdrawing the national implementation of the disposable cup deposit system and withdrawing the system to reduce the use of disposable products,” said a coalition of ecological groups.
The year-long ban restricted cafeterias and food service establishments from using paper cups, plastic straws, and stirring sticks.
In addition, the policy included banning the use of plastic bags or shopping bags in general retail businesses such as convenience stores, duty-free shops, and supermarkets and banning the use of synthetic resin items in sports facilities, and plastic umbrellas in large-scale stores.
The government’s back-and-forth policies on the use of disposable products have frustrated small business owners.
On Nov 16, a coalition of 11 paper straw manufacturing companies issued a press release urging the government to backtrack from the decision to end the ban on plastic use.
The ban helped small and medium-sized businesses to expand their paper straw business and they will face losses if they are left with over 200 million unsold items in the inventory, the coalition said.
Environmental groups say the ban on disposable products worked in ecologically critical areas like Jeju Island.
Local media reported that the island saw a decline in trash and pollution due to the ban in the past year.
Many Koreans have also actively participated in ditching disposable products.
“I have tried consciously not to use disposable products, but I am disappointed that the government seems to be encouraging their use,” said Lee Gyeong-eun, 28, an office worker.
Meanwhile, a self-employed person who runs a cafe in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul said they have continued to use paper straws which are more expensive than plastic ones.
“Paper straws are more than twice as expensive as plastic, so you may lose money in terms of profit, but I think it can be tolerated,” hankooki.com quoted him as saying.
“I have only used paper straws, but I am going back to using plastic straws. It was a decision I made because I couldn’t get used to it and I was concerned about the environment,” he explained.
Korea’s plastic waste emissions per capita ranked third in the world in 2016, according to a report by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Each person produces 88 kilograms of plastic waste per year.
Beginning in 2021, the European Union (EU) banned the sale and use of 10 items, including plastic vinyl, food containers, cotton swabs, and beverage cups. The EU also implemented and expanded the producer responsibility recycling (EPR) system to ensure companies make efforts to recycle disposable products.
In addition, starting from January 2021, each EU member state introduced a plastic tax that requires EU member countries to pay 0.8 euros per kilogram to the EU on waste excluding plastics used for recycling from their country’s packaging plastic production.
Starting last December, Canada began banning the import, manufacture, and sale of a total of six items, including plastic bags, disposable food containers, plastic straws, cutlery, beverage tie rings, and beverage sticks, through the implementation of the Disposable Plastic Regulation Act.
Import and manufacturing of six items have been banned until December 2022, sales will be suspended from 2023 to 2025, and exports will be banned from 2025.
In addition, several EU countries and Canada are implementing more specific policies and measures such as preparing a plastic roadmap, plastic ingredient ratio regulation, and mandatory use ratio regulation of recycled raw materials. – UCA News
* This report is brought to you in partnership with the Catholic Times of Korea
