As of Dec 25th 2019, after the implementation of the revised Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources, a great number of green plastic beverage bottles disappeared from supermarket shelves in South Korea and were replaced with colorless plastic bottles.
This Act was amended as a result of China’s waste import ban [1] released in 2017, in which China banned the importation of 24 kinds of plastic wastes from South Korea from January 2018. The ban precipitated a waste crisis in South Korea. In May 2018, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) announced countermeasures to tackle the serious problem of plastic waste in the nation, and aims to decrease plastic wastes by 50% prior by 2030 [2]. On Dec 24th, 2018, MFDS revised the Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources and has developed new measures to control production and sales and reduce plastic waste. These changes came into effect on Dec 25th, 2019.
Main Content of the Act
1. PVC material and colored PET bottles are prohibited
In order to reduce plastic waste, PVC material (hard to recycle), colored PET bottles and labels for PET bottles that have used adhesives (hard to be removed during the recycling) are all prohibited from being used during manufacturing and sales by 2020. However, due to the lack of substitute materials, currently, PVC is allowed to be used for medicines, health functional foods, ham/sausage sold at normal temperatures, etc.
As revealed by the MoE Notice [3], the government will designate more prohibited materials every two years. Furthermore, it is also planned to develop new recyclable containers for cosmetics and wines within 2 years.
| Prohibited materials | |
| PVC | Colored PET bottle |
 |  |
2. Nine packaging materials shall be evaluated into four grades.
Nine packaging materials* for beverages, agricultural and aquatic products, cosmetics, shampoo for pets, etc. shall be evaluated into four grades—the excellent grade, the good grade, the normal grade, and the hard grade. The grading system and criteria are based on the recyclability and the detachability of the labels. These criteria are detailed in the Optimized Standards for Packaging Materials [4]. The grade shall be labeled on the product as well. According to the notice released by the Ministry of Environment, enterprises, and products that use the best grade packaging materials will be subject to incentives. Enterprises producing products that are classed as bad grades will be subject to an additional 30% environmental levy.
*9 packaging material here refers to paper boxes, glass bottles, steel cans, aluminum cans, ordinary foamed synthetic resin, polystyrene paper, PET bottle, synthetic resin packaging material, etc.
*How to should grades be labeled on packages?
Business operators shall conduct a self-evaluation first and then submit the self-evaluation result together with the application to Korea Environment Corporation. After official review, it is allowed to label the evaluation result on the package.
3. Punishment for violators
To domestic manufacturers and importers who import or manufacture packaging material that violates these two rules, a ban on manufacturing, importation, sales, or a maximum fine of 1 billion KRW (around 865 USD) will be implemented.
